Investigation of Indoor Asymmetric Thermal Radiation in Tibet Plateau: Case Study of a Typical Office Building

The unique climate in cold plateaus leads to long and cold winters, which result in the characteristics and creation of an indoor thermal environment different from that of plain areas. However, there is a lack of detailed research on and evaluation of indoor temperature distributions. This study took an office building in Lhasa as an example to study the indoor non-uniform temperature distributions with radiator and solar radiation. The indoor and outdoor thermal environment parameters were tested. Next, a numerical model was established and verified. On a typical winter weather day, although the average indoor air temperature and radiation temperature in Lhasa are higher than those in Beijing (both are cold areas), the temperature in both is lower than comfortable levels. The indoor vertical air temperature differences are below 3 degrees C, with a 5% dissatisfaction most of the time. Solar radiation and radiators seriously affect the uniformity of the indoor thermal environment. The radiation asymmetry in Lhasa is significant, and the maximum radiation temperature asymmetry can reach 8.73 degrees C. In addition, the setting of north-facing windows should be avoided as far as possible in Tibetan areas. Suitable design and evaluation standards should pay attention to the obvious phenomenon of uneven indoor temperature distribution.

Automated summary

The unique climate on cold plateaus leads to different indoor thermal environments compared to plain areas. This study focused on the indoor non-uniform temperature distributions with radiator and solar radiation in an office building in Lhasa. The research findings indicate that solar radiation and radiators have a significant impact on the uniformity of the indoor thermal environment.