Revisiting Heat Exchangers, Sensible Cooling Load Calculations

Science and Technology for the Built Environment

Revisiting Heat Exchangers, Sensible Cooling Load Calculations

From eSociety, January 2019

Throughout the year, Science and Technology for the Built Environment reports on original research with lasting value.

From indoor environmental quality to building enclosure assemblies, ASHRAE’s archival research publication includes information on science and technology research related to the stationary and mobile built environment.

STBE articles featured in ASHRAE’s eSociety newsletter in 2018 addressed topics from natural ventilation strategies to equipment load factors.

Revisit the most read featured STBE articles from last year.

Estimating Natural Ventilation Using Weibull Distribution

In the article "Statistical Analysis of Wind Data Using Weibull Distribution for Natural Ventilation Estimation" that appeared in the October edition of Science and Technology for the Built Environment, researchers used the Weibull distribution in a study to represent high-resolution historical wind data, statistically, for a one-year period to find out more about wind variability and its effect on airflow rate estimation.

The research proposed a method that could be used to characterize wind speed variances, especially with small time-step wind data. The method enables building designers to do a statistical airflow analysis, according to the paper's abstract.

The researchers discussed the significance and challenges of their research.

Advancing Heat Exchangers

Four researchers associated with the University of Maryland's Center for Environmental Energy Engineering won the best paper award for Science and Technology for the Built Environment for 2017. Daniel Bacellar, Ph.D.; Vikrant Aute, Ph.D., Member ASHRAE; Zhiwei Huang, Ph.D.; and Reinhard Radermacher, Ph.D., Fellow/Life Member ASHRAE and editor of STBE, won for their paper, "Design Optimization and Validation of High Performance Heat Exchangers using Approximation Assisted Optimization and Additive Manufacturing."

Aute, one of the paper's researchers who also serves on ASHRAE's Conferences and Expositions Committee, discussed the significance of the paper’s research and why he thinks it was named best paper of the year.

Getting More Accurate Sensible Cooling Load Calculations

One of the articles in the March edition of Science and Technology for the Built Environment looks at five peak cooling load methods covered by ASHRAE during a 46–year period beginning in 1967.

The study, "Literature Review of Building Peak Cooling Load Methods in the United States," summarizes the method differences that can lead to inaccurate sensible cooling load calculations, according to the authors, Chunliu Mao; Juan-Carlos Baltazar, Ph.D., Member ASHRAE; and Jeff S. Haberl, Ph.D., Fellow ASHRAE.

The authors address how the research can help engineers in the field better choose a proper calculation in addition to providing information on the methodologies, which was sometimes a challenge to find.

Updating Equipment Load Factors for the ASHRAE Handbook

Plug loads are one of the main contributors to the building's overall energy consumption in most office buildings, so they need to be considered in load calculations, according to an article in Science and Technology for the Built Environment.

Weekday and weekend power consumption profiles are developed for different office equipment in the article, "Equipment Power Consumption And Load Factor Profiles For Buildings’ Energy Simulation (ASHRAE 1742-RP)," written by Omer Sarfraz, Student Member ASHRAE, and Christian Bach, Ph.D., Associate Member/Student Branch Advisor, an assistant professor at Oklahoma State University.