Jacob, J C; Pandit, D and Sen, J (2025) Developing a validated simulation model of micro-zonal air-conditioning to evaluate thermal comfort parameters. Architectural Engineering and Design Management, 21(2), pp. 289-314. ISSN 1745-2007
Abstract
Micro-Zonal Occupant-Centric Control (MZOCC) helps in reducing building energy consumption by conditioning only the occupied regions in a room. For this, MZOCC divides a large room such as open-plan offices into virtual micro-zones to allow independent diffuser level control. But, unplanned MZOCC can lead to heavy thermal gradients and deflection of air jets, leading to thermal discomfort. To evaluate thermal comfort at different regions of a room under MZOCC, there is a need to accurately model parameters of thermal comfort. Field studies, exploring the transient variations in air temperature, humidity and velocity at different regions of the room due to MZOCC, are limited. At the same time, developing validated simulation models or digital twins using experimental data helps in exploring micro-zonal strategies to arrive at the best strategy. The aim of this study is to create a digital twin of an open-plan office and model the parameters required to estimate thermal comfort. This study senses transient variations in air temperature, velocity and humidity using a wireless sensor network and develops a computational fluid dynamic (CFD) model that can accurately model the sensed transient variations. Field data, constituting external surface temperatures captured using thermal images, variations in air-conditioning control strategy, dynamic occupancy and location, are periodically updated in the digital twin. The CFD model accurately predicts the trends in variations in indoor temperature, velocity and humidity at different regions of the room. The developed digital twin can be used in future studies to evaluate thermal comfort and plan MZOCC control strategies.
| Item Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | CFD; digital twin; humidity; micro-zoning; thermal comfort |
| Index terms: | zoning, variation, digital twin, indoor temperature, wireless sensor network, field study, strategy, thermal comfort, air temperature, future study, humidity, estimate, building energy consumption, surface temperature, discomfort |
| Subjects: | sustainability and energy, financial and cost management, research design and methodology, environmental engineering, thermal systems, health risk and incident analysis, management, contractual condition, urban planning, environmental science, digital engineering, climate science, research methods, computer vision |
| Topics: | Research Practice, Cost Management, Business Strategy, Governance, Digital Applications, Contract Administration, Engineering Principles, Health and Safety, Sustainability |
| Descriptive scope: | 3 PCA |
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