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Applied Thermal Engineering 22 (2002) 14851499

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A theoretical study of the thermal performance of the TermoDeck hollow core slab system
P. Barton, C.B. Beggs *, P.A. Sleigh
School of Civil Engineering, University of Leeds, Leeds LS2 9JT, UK Received 26 October 2001; accepted 17 April 2002

Abstract The TermoDeck hollow core slab system is a versatile energy storage technique for controlling the environment within large and medium sized buildings. It utilises the hollow cores within pre-cast concrete oor slabs as ventilation ducts to produce an environment which is thermally stable. Although many TermoDeck systems have successfully been installed in Scandinavia, the United Kingdom and in other northern European countries, the thermal performance of the system is not fully understood. This paper presents the results of a theoretical study, using a numerical model, into the thermal performance of the TermoDeck system. In particular, the role of the bends in the system is investigated and the conclusion reached that their impact on overall heat transfer is minimal. It is also concluded that greater thermal attenuation is achieved by using a ve-core pass system in comparison with a three-core system. 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.
Keywords: TermoDeck; Hollow core slab; Thermal storage; Fabric heat storage; Fabric energy storage; Pre-cast concrete; Heat transfer; Thermal performance

1. Introduction The TermoDeck system was developed in Sweden [1] and has been used successfully in many locations throughout northern Europe. Recently in the United Kingdom (UK) a number of high prole TermoDeck buildings have been constructed, including the Elizabeth Fry Building at the

Corresponding author. Tel.: +44-113-233-2303; fax: +44-113-343-2265/233-2265. E-mail address: c.b.beggs@leeds.ac.uk (C.B. Beggs).

1359-4311/02/$ - see front matter 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved. PII: S 1 3 5 9 - 4 3 1 1 ( 0 2 ) 0 0 0 5 9 - 5

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Nomenclature Tair Tsurface Ti;j h1 A _ m Cpair qair vair dcore l kair kslab a Re Pr Nu Fo Bi t Dt Dx , Dy air temperature at node point (C) surface temperature at node point (C) node point temperature (C) core convective heat transfer coecient (W/m2 K) core surface area (m2 ) air mass ow rate through core (kg/s) specic heat capacity of air (kJ/kg K) density of air (kg/m3 ) velocity of air (m/s) diameter of core (m) dynamic viscosity of air (Pa s) thermal conductivity of air (W/m K) thermal conductivity of concrete slab (W/m K) thermal diusivity of concrete slab (m2 /s) Reynolds number Prantl number Nusselt number Fourier number Biot number time (s) time step (s) spaces steps (m)

University of East Anglia [2] and the Kimberlin Library Building at De Montfort University [3]. The TermoDeck system involves pushing ventilation air through hollow core tubes in pre-cast concrete oor slabs. It is an environmentally benign system which produces buildings which are thermally stable and comfortable without the need for any refrigeration. The TermoDeck system employs low air velocities (i.e. approximately 1 m/s) with the result that buildings using this system tend to consume little energy. For example, the Elizabeth Fry Building consumes very little energy; its average electrical energy consumption for 1997 was only 61 kW h/m2 and its gas consumption was 37 kW h/m2 [2], gures which are less than half of the targets values for good practice air conditioned oce buildings in the UK [4]. In addition, it is perceived by its occupants to be a particularly comfortable building [5]. Although the TermoDeck system has been successfully employed in northern Europe, Australia and even Saudi Arabia, relatively little is known about its thermal performance. In particular, there appears to be confusion as to the inuence of the bend section on the overall performance of the TermoDeck system [68]. The authors therefore developed a numerical model and undertook a study to investigate the thermal performance of various components of the TermoDeck system. This paper presents the results of this study.

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2. The TermoDeck system It is possible to cool buildings, without the use of refrigeration plant, by utilising night ventilation. Night venting involves ooding the building interior with cool outside air during the nighttime, so that heat accumulated by the structure during the daytime is purged. The cool structure can then be used to absorb heat from the room space by radiation and natural convection during the daytime and also to cool outside air as it enters the building. For night venting to be successful good thermal coupling must exist between the air and the mass of the building. The TermoDeck system achieves this objective well by ensuring a high degree of thermal contact between the air and the building mass by pushing ventilation air through the hollow cores in proprietary concrete oor slabs, as shown in Fig. 1. By forming perpendicular coupling airways between the hollow cores, it is possible to form a 3 or 5 pass circuit through which supply air may pass. During periods in which cooling is required, outside air at ambient temperature is blown through the hollow core slabs for as much as 24 h of the day. Overnight the slab is cooled to approximately 1820 C, so that during the daytime warm incoming fresh air is pre-cooled by the slab before entering the room space. By exposing the sot of the slabs it is also possible to absorb heat radiated from occupants and equipment within the space. The TermoDeck system achieves good heat transfer between the incoming air and the concrete slab by ensuring turbulent airow through the hollow cores. This is achieved by using a core air velocity of approximately 1 m/s, which enables heat to be stored at a rate of between 10 and 40 W/ m2 of oor area, depending on the air temperatures involved [1,9]. 3. Finite dierence model In order to investigate the heat transfer mechanisms associated with the TermoDeck system, a two-dimensional numerical model was developed. The TermoDeck system relies on heat being

Fig. 1. The TermoDeck system.

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exchanged between the air in the core to the concrete of the slab, through the interface which is the surface of the core. Heat is conducted radially through the concrete from this interface until it reaches the surface (top and bottom of the slab) or to where the temperature gradient becomes smallin the horizontal direction between cores. As the temperature dierence between the cores is relatively low, the high heat capacity of the concrete means that it is possible to neglect the inuence of adjacent cores. This means that a two dimensional model may be constructed that is, one that models ow along the core and vertically through the concrete. This is the form of the model used in the studies described in this paper. The model equations (which are presented below) were programmed using Microsoft Excel incorporating Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) programming code which enabled a great deal of exibility to be introduced into the model. An explicit nite dierence methodology was used to simulate variations in temperature at incremental slab lengths and depths over time. Transient analysis was performed for each case using a cyclic 24 h sinusoidal air temperature distribution at the inlet boundary and for the room. The model incorporated features to allow investigation of the eect of the convective heat transfer at the bend sections in the TermoDeck system and also the eect of changing the number of cores utilised. Because hollow core concrete slabs are manufactured in a range of geometries it was decided that the dimensions of the study slabs should correlate with those used in previous research [1,68,10,11], thus enabling published results to be utilised during the model validation process. Fig. 2 shows the geometry used in the study; the slab thickness was 270 mm and the core diameter was 180 mm. The length of the hollow cores was 4000 mm and the bends were assumed to have an equivalent length of 415 mm. The model utilised a regular spaced nite dierence mesh with interlinking nodes in both the x (along the slab core) and y (vertically down through the slab) directions, as shown in Fig. 3. Although the heat transfer from core is radial preliminary numerical simulations showed this could be approximated well by plane conduction due to the small curvature of the core surface and the short distance to the boundary. With the assumption of constant temperatures in the upper and lower room spaces this meant that the system could be simulated by modelling heat transfer through one half of the slab depth, although the complete surface area of the core was used to take in to account all of the heat transfer.

Fig. 2. Standard TermoDeck cross-section core geometry.

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Fig. 3. A section of the two-dimensional nite dierence mesh.

The model equations used are those derived from standard heat transfer considerations of conduction and convection. They incorporate the considerations of the heat capacities and respective abilities to transfer heat within and between the air and concrete. Here we will present only the nal model equations in nite dierence form, derivation of the equations and their nite dierence form can be found in many standard books on heat transfer, for example, [12]. The nite dierence model incorporated Eqs. (1)(4) to determine the temperature distribution through the concrete slab and the air temperature variation along the length of the hollow core. In these equations the subscripts i and j represent x and y nodal positions respectively. The superscripts n and n 1 signify the current and subsequent time step with current time dened as t tstart nDt. The core node air temperature was determined by using Eq. (1). ! h1 ATairi Tsurfacei 1 Tairi1 Tairi _ Cpair m The core surface temperature at the surface nodal points was determined by using Eq. (2).
1 n n n n Tin Fo2Tin ;j ;j1 Ti1;j Ti1;j 2BiTi;j1 1 4Fo 2BiFoTi;j

These two equations incorporate a heat transfer coecient, h1 , to relate heat transfer at the boundary between the core air and the concrete slab. The interior node temperature at the nodal points was determined by using Eq. (3).
1 n n n n FoTin Tin ;j 1;j Ti1;j Ti;j1 Ti;j1 1 4FoTi;j

The slab surface temperature at the slab/room boundary was determined by using Eq. (4).
1 n n n n Tin Fo2Tin ;j ;j1 Ti1;j Ti1;j 2BiTroom 1 4Fo 2BiFoTi;j

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The Fourier number (Fo), Biot number (Bi) and convective heat transfer coecient (h1 ) are dened as follows: Fo aDt Dx2 5

a is the thermal diusivity of the concrete, which is the ratio of thermal conductivity to the heat capacity. Bi h 1 Dx kslab kair Nu dcore 6

h1 where

Nu 0:023Re0:8 Prn Pr Cpair l kair qair vair dcore l

8 9

Re

10

As the solution method for the model equations was explicit in time the solution is not unconditionally stable. It was necessary to choose a time step, Dt, suciently small to ensure stability. The criterion used to ensure this was Fo2 Bi 6 1 2 This expression implies a relationship between Dx and Dt as well as thermal properties of the air and concrete. 3.1. Validation of the model The model was validated by comparing the results it produced with those published by Willis et al. [11]. Williss data, comprised boundary condition data for the core inlet air temperature, together with core surface and outlet air temperatures for a 3 day experimental period. Williss inlet air temperature data was modied slightly to create a sinusoidal diurnal temperature distribution, and was applied to the model. Fig. 4 shows a direct comparison between core air temperatures published by Willis et al. and core air temperatures generated by the two-dimensional model for a three-core pass through a TermoDeck slab. The slab and air temperature data shown is for the third day of continuous operation and represents a situation where thermal stabilisation has been achieved. The results produced by the model corroborate those published by Willis et al. with the model producing peak core outlet air temperatures that were within 0.2 C of Williss data and a core air temperature range that was within 0.65 C of the experimental values. These results conrm that

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Fig. 4. Comparison between results achieved by the two-dimensional model and Willis et al. for the third day of operation.

the developed methodology provides a good correlation with the actual behaviour of the TermoDeck slab operating under the conditions applied. As well as to demonstrate that the model can simulate known data, it is also important to ensure that solutions obtained are as accurate as possible using the equations chosen. The usual procedure is to increase the number of nodes in the model until solutions with an increased number of nodes change little. From this the minimum number of nodes required can be determined. This procedure was carried out for this study with the conclusion that using a node spacing (equal in x and y directions) of 25 mm gave only a 0.05% dierence between solutions with 12.5 mm spaced nodes. It meant that ve nodes would be placed in the concrete enough to give a temperature prole through the slab. All test were subsequently run with the 25 mm node spacing.

4. Bend study Having demonstrated the viability of the model under sample operating conditions a parametric study was undertaken to assess the relative impact of various components of the TermoDeck system. The study utilised both steady state and transient temperature proles to analyse the behaviour of the slab and to provide data which could be compared with that produced by previous research.

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There is some uncertainty as to the eect that the bend sections in the hollow core have on the overall performance of the TermoDeck system. Previous researchers [68] have suggested that because of increased turbulence, the heat transfer coecient experienced at the bends is much greater than that for the straight sections. Ren and Wright [8] suggests that the heat transfer coecient in this region is approximately 50 times that for the straight sections, whilst Winwood et al. [6,7] states that the bend heat transfer coecient is approximately 15 times that of the straights. Despite the wide discrepancy between these gures, no additional research has been published to corroborate either value. Consequently, it was decided to undertake a study using the model described above to assess the inuence that the bends have on the performance of the TermoDeck system. The model representation of the TermoDeck system is illustrated in Fig. 5. In this study it was assumed that air owed through a continuous straight tube. However, where bend sections

Fig. 5. A simplied representation of the TermoDeck eective core length.

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Fig. 6. Steady state analysis of a three-core pas system incorporating a bend heat transfer factor of 50.

occurred in the system the heat transfer coecient for the straight representing the bend was increased by a multiplication factor. In this way it was possible to analyse the eect of the bends on the core air and surface temperatures along the length of the core and thus determine their relative inuence upon the overall behaviour of the system. Fig. 6 shows the eect that the bend sections have on core surface air temperatures for a threecore pass TermoDeck slab under steady state conditions. It is assumed in the system shown that it is operating in cooling mode and that the heat transfer coecient at the bends is 50 times greater than that for the straight cores. The air velocity through the core is assumed to be 1 m/s, with the heat transfer for the straight core sections calculated as 5.29 Wm2 K. The core inlet air temperature is maintained at 28 C and the room air temperature at 20 C. The bend length is 415 mm and the straight core lengths are 4000 mm each. From Fig. 6 it can be seen that although the bends have a large impact on core surface temperature, they have relatively little inuence on the overall air temperature drop achieved by the TermoDeck system. Fig. 7 shows the results of a more detailed analysis in which bend heat transfer coecients are multiplied by a range of factors (i.e. 10, 25, 50). The results indicate that if the bend multiplication factor is small (e.g. 10), the core surface temperature at the bends will be relatively low, due to the lack of heat transfer to slab. If the multiplication factor is large (e.g. 50), the heat transfer rate will be greater and thus the core surface temperature will increased. In contrast to the core surface temperature, variation of the bend heat transfer coecient has negligible impact on core air temperature, with the air temperature range at the bends being approximately 0.2 C. Fig. 8 shows the transient eect of the heat transfer coecient at the bends. The external air temperature used in the analysis is based on meteorological data obtained for Heathrow, London.

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Fig. 7. Steady state analysis illustrating the eect of varying bend heat transfer factors upon core air and slab core surface temperatures.

Fig. 8. Transient analysis for three-core pass TermoDeck operation with bend heat transfer factors of 1 and 50.

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The room air temperature was assumed to exhibit a sinusoidal form which lagged behind the external temperature by two hours and which had a range from 22 to 24 C. The nodes in the twodimensional model were initially all set at 19 C. From Fig. 8 it can be seen that a bend heat transfer factor as high as 50 has negligible impact on core air temperature over the 24-h period. 4.1. Core utilisation study Although most applications utilise a three-core pass, the standard TermoDeck geometry enables ve cores to be utilised. There has been little published research on the eect of varying the number of cores utilised. A study was therefore undertaken to investigate the eect of increasing the number of cores utilised. This study assumed the standard TermoDeck geometry, with 4000 mm core straights, with bends having an equivalent length of 415 mm. For ve-core operation, the total distance travelled by the air prior to discharge was 21.66 m, and for a three-core regime the distance was 12.83 m. Winwood et al. [6] investigated the impact of both three- and ve-core operating regimes. Fig. 9 replicates results published by Winwood et al. for core air temperature prior to discharge from both three- and ve-core pass systems.

Fig. 9. Three- and ve-core TermoDeck operation (Winwood et al. data).

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Fig. 10. Results of the two-dimensional model for three- and ve-core operating regimes.

Fig. 10 shows results obtained from the two-dimensional model using meteorological data for Heathrow. It was assumed in the simulation that the bend heat transfer coecient multiplication factor was 50. The core air temperatures stated are those prior to discharge from the slab when utilising either a three- and ve-core operating regime. Comparison between Figs. 9 and 10 reveals similarities between the modelled data and the results published by Winwood et al. Both graphs show that the ve-core regime reduces the peak core air temperature by approximately 0.7 C compared with the three-core regime. In addition, there is a phase shift of 60100 min. The use of ve-cores reduces the exiting air diurnal range by about 1.5 C compared with the three-core regime. 5. Discussion While the bend study assumes an enhanced heat transfer coecient in the core bend sections as demonstrated by other researchers [68,11], it contradicts the ndings of Willis et al. [11], who concluded that the majority of thermal transfer occurred in the bend sections with relatively little occurring along the straights. Figs. 6 and 7 indicate that the inuence of the bends on air temperature is minimal. It is in the straight core sections that the majority of the heat transfer takes place. The air temperature drop across each the bend section varies between 0.2 and 0.5 C depending on the location of the bend in the system and the heat transfer coecient used in the model, while the overall temperature drop through the slab is nearly 4 C. This observation can be explained as follows:

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The surface area of the bends is relatively small in comparison with the area of the straight core sections. Consequently, most of the heat transfer will take place in the straights, despite the fact that the heat transfer coecient at the bends is much greater than that experienced in the straights. It is evident from Fig. 7 that (when operating in the cooling mode) the temperature of the concrete core surface at the bends increases dramatically as the heat transfer coecient increases. This is because more heat is being transferred to the concrete than can be conducted away; so the surface temperature increases. However, as the surface temperature increases, so the rate of heat transfer decreases, because the temperature dierential between the air and the concrete surface decreases. Therefore, the assumptions made by Willis et al. [11] regarding the dominance of the bend heat transfer mechanism appear unjustied. Indeed, the modelled results suggest that even a bend heat transfer multiplication factor of 50 has little impact upon overall slab performance. The results of the core utilisation study corroborate the work of Winwood et al. [6]. The study found that the passage of air through 5 cores, compared with a three-core pass, ensured a greater residence time and promoted thermal interaction with a greater proportion of the slab mass. The use of ve-cores appears to reduce the exiting air diurnal range by about 1.5 C compared with the three-core regime. This is consistent with heat exchanger theory; the use of ve cores increases the residence time of the air within the TermoDeck slab and so aids progression towards thermal equilibrium between the core airow and the core surface temperature. In other words, the core air temperature further approaches that of the slab surface temperature the longer the residence time. One other interesting observation, which consistently occurs across all the studies quoted above, including those which are specically the subject of this paper, is the time-lag or phase shift which occurs between the peak outside air temperature, the peak core surface temperature, and the peak temperature of the air leaving the TermoDeck slab (see Figs. 4, 8, 9 and 10). This phenomenon occurs because of the thermal storage eect of the concrete slab. Even though the temperature of the air entering the slab may be falling the slab surface temperature will still continue to rise, albeit at a reduced rate. Consequently, the temperature of the air leaving the slab will continue to rise for some time after the outside air temperature has peaked. The phase shift eect becomes more pronounced the longer the air pathway. From Fig. 10 it can be seen that phase shift increases markedly if a ve-core pass is used instead of a three-core pass. During the various studies described above it was observed that the inclusion of a periodic room temperature heavily inuenced the behaviour of the TermoDeck slab. This was because the room air temperature inuenced the surface temperature of the underside of the slab and thus aected the rate of conduction through the concrete. In turn, the air supply temperature to the space directly inuenced the room air temperature. Consequently, there is a thermal time-lag between the supply and room temperatures. The thermal lag associated with the room air temperature is dependent upon the extent to which thermal mass is present. For example, a thermally lightweight room will respond rapidly to changes in the supply air temperature, with the result that the thermal time-lag is minimised. By comparison, thermally massive rooms, such as those incorporating a TermoDeck system, tend to attenuate and delay peak internal temperatures because heat is absorbed by the building structure. In the transient studies it was decided to

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incorporate a 2h room temperature phase shift (see Figs. 8 and 10) into the model. A 2h thermal lag was used in the analysis because rooms incorporating TermoDeck slabs are thermally stable and have a large thermal capacity. One of the limitations of the two-dimensional model is that it ignores the thermal behaviour of the room space, with the result that the room air temperature must be assumed. In reality, the supply air temperature and the thermal capacity of the space would determine the room air temperature. Because the room air temperature dominates the resultant core air temperature prole it is important to ensure that the room air temperatures used in the analysis are realistic. However, there is strong evidence [2,3,5] that buildings using the TermoDeck system have a thermally stable environment and therefore it can be safely assumed that the room air temperature range will be relatively small. 6. Conclusions The two-dimensional nite dierence model presented here eectively simulated the thermal performance of a TermoDeck system and produced results consistent with previous research, and therefore proved to be a useful analysis tool. From the studies undertaken using this model it is possible to draw following conclusions: The TermoDeck slab attenuates supply air temperatures, thereby ensuring a thermally stable internal environment. The longer the air passage, the greater the dampening eect on the air diurnal temperature range. Consequently a ve-core pass system will achieve greater thermal attenuation than a three-core system, and thus should promote a more thermally stable internal environment. The hollow core bend sections have a minimal eect on overall heat transfer within the TermoDeck slab. This nding contradicts past research which suggested that the bend sections dominated heat transfer in the TermoDeck system. Room air temperature has a strong inuence on core air temperature. Variations in room air temperature are however not likely to be great, since the use of TermoDeck tends to produce a thermally stable environment.

References
[1] R. Winwood, R. Benstead, R. Edwards, Advanced fabric energy storage 1: review, Building Services Engineering Research and Technology 18 (1) (1997) 16. [2] M. Standeven, R. Cohen, B. Bordass, A. Leaman, PROBE 14: Elizabeth fry building, Building Services Journal 20 (1998) 3742. [3] R. Bunn, Cool desking, Building Services Journal 20 (1998) 1620. [4] Energy use in oces, Energy Consumption Guide 19, Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions, 1998. [5] W. Bordass, A. Leaman, P. Ruyssevelt, PROBE strategic review: Report 4 Strategic Conclusions. Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions, August 1999. [6] R. Winwood, R. Benstead, R. Edwards, Advanced fabric energy storage 2: computational uid dynamics, Building Services Engineering Research and Technology 18 (1) (1997) 716.

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[7] R. Winwood, R. Benstead, R. Edwards, Advanced fabric energy storage 3: theoretical analysis and whole building simulation, Building Services Engineering Research and Technology 18 (1) (1997) 1724. [8] M.J. Ren, J.A. Wright, A ventilated slab thermal storage system model, Building and Environment 33 (1) (1997) 4352. [9] G.D. Braham, Passive Air Conditioning, Proceedings of the CIBSE National Conference, Canterbury 1991, pp. 1 10. [10] R. Winwood, R. Benstead, R. Edwards, Advanced fabric energy storage 4: experimental monitoring, Building Services Engineering Research and Technology 18 (1) (1997) 2530. [11] S. Willis, J. Wilkins, Mass appeal, Building Services Journal 15 (1993) 2528. [12] F.P. Incropera, D.P. De Witt, Fundamentals of heat and mass transfer, John Wiley and Sons, New York, 1990.

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