Development of a simulation analysis environment for ventilated slab systems

In this paper, a new simulation environment is presented to evaluate the energy performance of ventilated slab systems in multi-floor buildings. The simulation environment combines a transient two-dimensional finite difference solution of a ventilated slab system comprising slab-wall joints with thermal network model for indoor spaces and associated exterior walls. The developed simulation environment can assess the impact of thermal bridging effects on both heating and cooling building thermal loads. First, the predictions of the developed simulation environment are verified against those obtained from a detailed whole-building energy simulation tool when thermal bridging effects are neglected. Then, a series of parametric analyses are performed to determine the performance of ventilated slab systems under various design and operating conditions considering the thermal bridging effects. It is found that the energy performance of ventilated slab systems and thermal bridging impact depend on a wide range of factors including size of the slab, supply air inlet temperature, air mass flow rate, core diameter, core pitch, and depth of hollow cores. In particular, it is found that the thermal bridge affects significantly the energy performance of ventilated slab systems and can increase both heating and cooling energy consumptions by 17% and 11%, respectively. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.