Use of Passive Radiation Barriers in Ventilated Attics

Document Type

Conference Proceeding

Publication Date

1996

Publication Title

ASHRAE Transactions

Publisher

ASHRAE

Volume

102

Issue

1

First page number:

307

Last page number:

314

Abstract

The model developed is a one-dimensional transient approximation of the various heat transfer processes taking place in a ventilated attic. Along with the attic insulation, an attic radiant barrier system (ARBS) is investigated; this is composed of two highly reflective foil surfaces that sandwich in between them a layer of air bubbles. The main purpose of the barrier is to reduce the net radiant heat transfer flow that eventually reaches the ceiling as a cooling load. The attic space is assumed to be actively ventilated by the discharged exhaust air from an evaporation cooler that is cooling the living space. The model is a fully implicit one that does not reduce or simplify the nonlinear radiation terms. It also assumes that the air properties and the convective heat transfer coefficients are variables that have to be iterated on as part of the overall solution of nodal temperatures at each time step. Presents details of this model and its capabilities. The accuracy and physical behavior of the model have been partially verified by running several numerical experiments.

Keywords

Accuracy; Air bubbles; Air temperature; Attics – Heating and ventilation; Bubbles; Calculating; Cooling; Cooling load; Evaporation; Foils; Heat – Transmission; Heat flow; Heat transfer coefficient; Metal foils; Passive; Sandwich construction; Temperature control; Thermal insulation

Disciplines

Architectural Engineering | Environmental Design | Heat Transfer, Combustion | Manufacturing | Mechanical Engineering

Language

English

Permissions

Use Find in Your Library, contact the author, or interlibrary loan to garner a copy of the item. Publisher policy does not allow archiving the final published version. If a post-print (author's peer-reviewed manuscript) is allowed and available, or publisher policy changes, the item will be deposited.


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