DYNAMIC ENERGY MODELING OF AN EXPERIMENTAL BUILDING EQUIPPED WITH AN UNDERFLOOR AIR DISTRIBUTION (UFAD) SYSTEM

In this study, experimental and simulation studies were performed in a building equipped with an UFAD system in order to investigate the applicability of a new approach designed for prediction of the energy consumption of a residential building with an UFAD system. In this approach, a zonal model, Pressurized zOnal Model with the Air diffuser (POMA), was coupled with a thermal jet model and integrated into a traditional multizone thermal model. The coupled model was verified experimentally. This integrated model has the ability to take into account the characteristics of an UFAD system and thus accurately simulate its energy consumption. A case study was carried out using both approaches: Multi-zone approach and the new developed integrated zonal/jet/multizone model. A quantitative comparison, in terms of energy demand of a building with an UFAD system, shows that the difference can reach 14% and thus indicates that the traditional multizone modeling approach is not appropriate to use for UFAD system in the building energy prediction.