Analysis and numerical simulation of indoor thermal environments in some university classrooms

In order to study the indoor thermal environments in university classrooms in Tianjin,a field study and a questionnaire survey for a main teaching building are carried out.First,the thermal sensations of participants in the typical classrooms are studied by 180 questionnaires.Then,based on the measured data,the temperature changes in the classrooms during a year are simulated by the DeST software.The results show that the indoor thermal environments in the northern classrooms on the first floor are better than those in other classrooms.And the measurement results accord with the simulation results.These results can be used as a reference for the study of the indoor thermal environments in other seasons.

Human thermal comfort in non-uniform thermal environments:A review

Thermal comfort is critical for ensuring the health and productivity of occupants and knowing their thermal demand could help creat a satisfying environment with the least energy waste.Theory of thermal comfort is built based on experimental studies in uniform and stable environments,while there is still a gap when applying in evaluating human thermal comfort in non-uniform thermal environments.Therefore,an insight into human thermal comfort in non-uniform thermal environments is taken.The fundamental studies of thermal comfort in non-uniform thermal environments are explicated,including thermal comfort theory applied in non-uniform thermal environments,types of non-uniform thermal environments and corresponding studies,physiological and psychological thermal responses in the environments.Besides,the evaluation indices of non-uniform thermal environments are classified according to their definitions and the comfort models are reviewed.Finally,future works in this research field are discussed.In general,the overall thermal comfort and local thermal comfort should be both taken into account in non-uniform thermal environments where skin temperatures and psychological thermal responses of occupants are different among local body segments.Moreover,as studies of local thermal comfort are mainly conducted in thermally neutral condition,the limits considering the state deviating thermal neutrality(slightly warm or cool),which is frequently found in reality,are encouraged to be studied.Finally,a well-defined comprehensive index should be proposed considering heat exchange of human body with their microenvironments and thus the comfort range of the index could be provided for designing of non-uniform thermal environments.

VIBRATION AND SOUND RADIATION OF AN ASYMMETRIC LAMINATED PLATE IN THERMAL ENVIRONMENTS

Analytical studies on the vibration and sound radiation characteristics of an asymmetric laminated rectangular plate are carried out in this paper. Theoretical formulations, in which the effects of thermal environments are taken into account, are derived for the vibration and sound radiation based on both first-order shear deformation plate theory and Rayleigh integral. It is found that the natural frequencies, the resonant amplitudes of vibration response and the sound pressure level decrease with the temperature rising. The natural frequencies of asym- metric plates are smaller than those of symmetric plates and the velocity responses of asymmetric plates are larger than those of symmetric plates.

Nonlinear bending analysis of a 3D braided composite cylindrical panel subjected to transverse loads in thermal environments

The aim of this study is to investigate nonlinear bending for a 3-Dimensional（3D）braided composite cylindrical panel which has transverse loads on its finite length. By refining a micro-macro-mechanical model, the 3D braided composite can be treated as a representative average cell system. The geometric structural properties of its components deeply depend on their positions in the section of the cylindrical panel. The embedded elastic medium of the panel can be described by a Pasternak elastic foundation. Via using the shell theory of the von Ka′rma′nDonnell type of kinematic nonlinearity, governing equations can be established to get higherorder shear deformation. The mixed Galerkin-perturbation method is applied to get the nonlinear bending behavior of the 3D braided cylindrical panel with a simply supported boundary condition.Based on the analysis of the braided composite cylindrical panel with variable initial stress, geometric parameter, fiber volume fraction, and elastic foundation, serial numerical illustrations are archived to represent the appropriate nonlinear bending responses.

Postbuckling behavior of 3D braided rectangular plates subjected to uniaxial compression and transverse loads in thermal environments

Postbuckling behavior of the 3D braided rectangular plates subjected to uniaxial compression combined with transverse loads in thermal environments is presented.Based on a micro-macro-mechanical model,a 3D braided composite may be treated as a cell system and the geometry of each cell is deeply dependent on its position in the cross-section of the plate.The material properties of the epoxy are expressed as a linear function of temperature.Uniform,linear and nonlinear temperature distributions through the thickness are involved.The lateral pressure(three types of transverse loads,i.e.transverse uniform load;transverse patch load over a central area;and transverse sinusoidal load)is first converted into an initial deflection and the initial geometric imperfection of the plate is taken into account.The governing equations are based on Reddy’s higher-order shear deformation plate theory with a von Kármán-type of kinematic nonlinearity.Two cases of the in-plane boundary conditions are also taken into account.A perturbation technique is employed to determine buckling loads and postbuckling equilibrium paths of simply supported 3D braided rectangular plates.The results reveal that the temperature rise,geometric parameter,fiber volume fraction,braiding angle,the character of the in-plane boundary conditions and different types of initial transverse loads have a significant effect on the buckling and postbuckling behavior of the braided composite plates.

Structural topology optimization on sound radiation at resonance frequencies in thermal environments

Thermal and acoustic environments pose severe challenges to find optimal design that exhibits ideal acoustic characteristics the structural design of hypersonic vehicles. One of them is to in a frequency band, which is discussed in this paper through topology optimization aiming at resonance sound radiation in thermal environments. The sound radiation at resonance fre- quencies is the main component of response, minimization on which is likely to provide a satisfactory design. A bi-material plate subjected to uniform temperature rise and excited by harmonic loading is studied here. Thermal stress is first evaluated and considered as prestress in the following dynamic analysis; radiated sound power is then calculated through Rayleigh inte- gral. Sensitivity analysis is carried out through adjoint method considering the complicated relationship between stress-induced geometric stiffness and design variables. As the resonance frequency is constantly changing during the optimization, its sensi- tivity should be considered. It is also noticed that mode switching may occur, so mode tracking technique is employed in this work. Some numerical examples are finally discussed.

Experimental study on thermal environment in large-space building with low sidewall air supply

The thermal environmental characteristics are experim-entally studied in terms of different air supply volumes and outdoor meteorological parameters in a large-space building which is air conditioned with a low sidewall air supply.The experimental results show that the indoor vertical temperature distributions under different condition are similar.The maximum vertical temperature difference（MVTD）is up to about 20 ℃,and it linearly changes with the sol-air temperature.The indoor vertical temperature gradients（VTGs）in the upper,central and lower zones are different.The influence of the sol-air temperature on the VTGs in the upper and the lower zones is greater than that in the central zone.The characteristics of the VTGs in the three zones affected by the air supply volume are the same as those affected by the sol-air temperature.Besides,because of the small air velocity,the predicted mean vote（PMV）on comfort in the occupied zone is slightly high and the air temperature difference between the head and the ankle is usually more than 3 ℃.

Experimental Study on Occupant's Thermal Responses under the Non-uniform Conditions in Vehicle Cabin during the Heating Period

The existing investigations on thermal comfort mostly focus on the thermal environment conditions, especially of the air-flow field and the temperature distributions in vehicle cabin. Less attention appears to direct to the thermal comfort or thermal sensation of occupants, even to the relationship between thermal conditions and thermal sensation. In this paper, a series of experiments were designed and conducted for understanding the non-uniform conditions and the occupant＇s thermal responses in vehicle cabin during the heating period. To accurately assess the transient temperature distribution in cabin in common daily condition, the air temperature at a number of positions is measured in a full size vehicle cabin under natural winter environment in South China by using a discrete thermocouples network. The occupant body is divided into nine segments, the skin temperature at each segment and the occupant＇s local thermal sensation at the head, body, upper limb and lower limb are monitored continuously. The skin temperature is observed by using a discrete thermocouples network, and the local thermal sensation is evaluated by using a seven-point thermal comfort survey questionnaire proposed by American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers, Inc（ASHRAE） Standard. The relationship between the skin temperature and the thermal sensation is discussed and regressed by statistics method. The results show that the interior air temperature is highly non-uniform over the vehicle cabin. The locations where the occupants sit have a significant effect on the occupant＇s thermal responses, including the skin temperature and the thermal sensation. The skin temperaWa-e and thermal sensation are quite different between body segments due to the effect of non-uniform conditions, clothing resistance, and the human thermal regulating system. A quantitative relationship between the thermal sensation and the skin temperature at each body segment of occupant in real life traffic is presented. The investigation result indicates that the skin temperature is a robust index to evaluate the thermal sensation. Applying the skin temperature to designing and controlling parameters of the heating, ventilation and air conditioning（HVAC） system may benefit the thermal comfort and reducing energy consumption.

Influence of urbanization on the thermal environment of meteorological station:Satellite-observed evidence

In this paper, five national meteorological stations in Anhui province are taken as typical examples to explore the effects of local urbanization on their thermal environment by using Landsat data from 1990 to 2010. Satellite-based land use/land cover(LULC), land surface temperature(LST), normalized difference vegetation index(NDVI) are used to investigate the effects. The study shows that LULC around meteorological stations changed significantly due to urban expansion. Fast urbanization is the main factor that affects the spatial-temporal distribution of thermal environment around meteorological stations. Moreover, the normalized LST and NDVI exhibit strong inverse correlations around meteorological stations, so the variability of LST can be monitored through evaluating the variability of NDVI. In addition, station-relocation plays an important role in improving representativeness of thermal environment. Notably, the environment representativeness was improved, but when using the data from the station to study climate change, the relocation-induced inhomogeneous data should be considered and adjusted. Consequently,controlling the scale and layout of the urban buildings and constructions around meteorological stations is an effective method to ameliorate observational thermal environment and to improve regional representativeness of station observation. The present work provides observational evidences that high resolution Landsat images can be used to evaluate the thermal environment of meteorological stations.

Impact of cold indoor thermal environmental conditions on human thermal response

To explore the thermal responses under the non-thermal equilibrium cold environmental conditions,a laboratory study was conducted in climate chamber.The local skin temperatures and thermal sensation of 20 subjects were recorded at 10 min intervals for 90 min under air temperatures of 7.4,9.1,11 and 15 °C.The results show that both local skin temperatures and mean skin temperature decrease not only with the drop of ambient air temperature but also with the exposure time.Local thermal sensation and overall the thermal sensation have the similar temperature-varying and time-varying characteristics.Predicted mean vote(PMV) model cannot correctly predict the thermal sensation under non-thermal equilibrium cold environment.The correlation between local thermal sensation and local skin temperatures shows that thermal sensation is closely related to skin temperature.Skin temperature is an effective indicator of thermal sensation.A linear relationship model between overall thermal sensation and mean skin temperature,considering both ambient temperature and exposure time,was established in the non-thermal equilibrium cold environment,which makes the evaluation of thermal sensation more objective.

Impacts of Urban Expansion on the Urban Thermal Environment:A Case Study of Changchun,China

Urbanization,especially urban land expansion,has a profound influence on the urban thermal environment.Cities in Northeast China face remarkably uneven development and environmental issues,and thus it is necessary to strengthen the diagnosis of thermal environmental pressure brought by urbanization.In this study,multi remote sensing imageries and statistical approaches,involving piecewise linear regression(PLR),were used to explore urban expansion and its effects on the thermal environment of Changchun City in Jilin Province,China.Results show that Changchun experienced rapid urban expansion from 2000 to 2020,with urban built-up areas increasing from 171.77 to 525.14 km^(2).The area of the city’s urban heat island(UHI)increased dramatically,during both day and night.Using PLR,a positive linear correlation of built-up density with land surface temperature(LST)was detected,with critical breakpoints of 70%-80%during the daytime and 40%-50%at nighttime.Above the thresholds,the magnitude of LST in response to built-up density significantly increased with intensifying urbanization,especially for nighttime LST.An analysis of the relative frequency distributions(RFDs)of LST reveals that rapid urbanization resulted in a significant increase of mean LST in newly urbanized areas,but had weak effects on daytime LST change in existing urban area.Urban expansion also contributed to a constant decrease of spatial heterogeneity of LST in existing urban area,especially at daytime.However,in newly urbanized areas,the spatial heterogeneity of LST was decreased during the daytime but increased at nighttime due to urbanization.

Impact of light-weight external thermal insulation materials on building surrounding thermal environment in summer

The method for calculating wall surface heat storage coefficient was introduced,and the coefficients of several common walls with light-weight external thermal insulation materials and the traditional solid clay brick wall were calculated.In order to study the impact of light-weight external thermal insulation materials,a contrasting experiment was carried out between an external insulated room and an uninsulated room in August,2010,in Chongqing,China.The result shows that outside surface heat storage coefficient of the insulated wall is much less than that of the traditional wall.However,during sunny time,the surface temperature of external walls of the insulated room is obviously higher than that of the uninsulated room.In different orientations,due to different amounts of solar radiation and being irradiated in different time,the contrasting temperature difference(CTD) appears different regularity.In a word,using light-weight external thermal insulation materials has a negative impact on building surrounding thermal environment and people's health.Finally,some suggestions on how to eliminate the impact,such as improving the surface condition of the building envelop,and plating vertical greening,are put forward.

Thermal Modal Analysis of Doubly Curved Shell Based on Rayleigh⁃Ritz Method

The doubly curved shell(DCS)is a common structure in the engineering field.In a thermal environment,the vibration characteristics of the DCS will be affected by the thermal effect.The research on the vibration characteristics of DCS in thermal environment is relatively limited.In this paper,the thermal strain and the change of Young’s modulus caused by the changing of temperature are studied,and the DCS energy equation is established systematically.The displacement tolerance function of the DCS is constructed by the spectral geometry method,and the natural frequencies and mode shapes of the DCS with different structural parameters,such as thicknesses,ratios of R_(a)/R_(b) and a/b,at different temperatures are solved by the Rayleigh-Ritz method.The results show that the natural frequency of the DCS decreases with the increasing temperature,R_(a)/R_(b) and a/b ratios,and increases with the increasing thickness.

Surface and thermal effects on vibration of embedded alumina nanobeams based on novel Timoshenko beam model

This paper deals with the free vibration analysis of circular alumina （Al2O3） nanobeams in the presence of surface and thermal effects resting on a Pasternak foun- dation. The system of motion equations is derived using Hamilton＇s principle under the assumptions of the classical Timoshenko beam theory. The effects of the transverse shear deformation and rotary inertia are also considered within the framework of the mentioned theory. The separation of variables approach is employed to discretize the governing equa- tions which are then solved by an analytical method to obtain the natural frequencies of the alumina nanobeams. The results show that the surface effects lead to an increase in the natural frequency of nanobeams as compared with the classical Timoshenko beam model. In addition, for nanobeams with large diameters, the surface effects may increase the natural frequencies by increasing the thermal effects. Moreover, with regard to the Pasternak elastic foundation, the natural frequencies are increased slightly. The results of the present model are compared with the literature, showing that the present model can capture correctly the surface effects in thermal vibration of nanobeams.

Vibration and sound transmission loss characteristics of porous foam functionally graded sandwich panels in thermal environment

This study investigates the vibration and acoustic properties of porous foam functionally graded(FG)plates under the influence of the temperature field.The dynamics equations of the system are established based on Hamilton's principle by using the higher-order shear deformation theory under the linear displacement-strain assumption.The displacement shape function is assumed according to the four-sided simply-supported(SSSS)boundary condition,and the characteristic equations of the system are derived by combining the motion control equations.The theoretical model of vibro-acoustic coupling is established by using the acoustic theory and fluid-structure coupling solution method under the simple harmonic acoustic wave.The system's natural frequency and sound transmission loss(STL)are obtained through programming calculations and compared with the literature and COMSOL simulation to verify the validity and reliability of the theoretical model.The effects of various factors,such as temperature,porosity coefficients,gradient index,core thickness,width-to-thickness ratio on the vibration,and STL characteristics of the system,are discussed.The results provide a theoretical basis for the application of porous foam FG plates in engineering to optimize vibration and sound transmission properties.

Numerical simulation study on the thermal environment in heading face

Based on κ-ε turbulence model, the distributions of the velocity field, tempera- ture field, thermal comfort index, PMV-PPD （Predicted Mean Vote-Predicted Percentage Dissatisfied）, and air quality index, mean age of air were obtained of Zhouyuanshan Coal Mine in -650 m level of a heading face by CFD（Computational Fluid Dynamics）software, Airpak 2.0. Moreover, the human thermal comfort and the air quality of the heading face were analyzed with PMV-PPD and mean age of air indices, which received an intuitive visualization and accurate evaluation results. In order to create a safe, comfortable, and economical underground operating environment, a scientific, rational, and comprehensive prediction and evaluation needed to provide a theoretical and technical basis for coal mine ventilation, cooling, heat harm treatment, and prevention. Meanwhile, from the human thermal comfort and air quality to research the underground environment, it embodied the concept of being human oriented.

Pattern Dynamics of Thermal-environment Effect During Urbanization:A Case Study in Shenzhen City,China

The thermal-environment effect exists in the field of rapid urbanization. It has adverse effects on the urban atmosphere, re- gional climate, energy consumption, and public health. Shenzhen, a representative of rapidly urbanizing cities in China, was selected as a case for pattern dynamics analysis of the thermal environment. The surface temperature was acquired from the thermal infrared data of Landsat TM and ETM＋ images in 1986, 1995, and 2005 by Jim6nez-Mufioz and Sobrino＇s generalized single-channel method, which was used in assessing the distribution and spatial patterns of the thermal environment. The relative thermal environment curve （RTC） was combined with Moran＇s I analysis to assess the pattern dynamics of the thermal environment in different urbanization periods. Moran＇s I index and the RTC represent a process of aggregation-fragmentation-aggregation, which shows the aggregation pattern of a decrease during the rapid urbanization period and then an increase during the steady urbanization period. High-temperature areas gradually ex- panded to a uniform and scattered distribution in the rapid urbanization period; while the high thermal-environment effect was gradually transformed into a steady spatial pattern in the stable urbanization period. To characterize the increasing development in this multiple- center city, we chose profiles along an urban-development axis. The results suggest that heat islands have expanded from internal urban to external urban areas. Four profiles were obtained showing differences in shape due to spatial differences in the process of development.

Nonlocal vibration analysis of circular double-layered graphene sheets resting on an elastic foundation subjected to thermal loading

Based on the nonlocal elasticity theory, the vibration behavior of circular double-layered graphene sheets（DLGSs） resting on the Winkler- and Pasternak-type elastic foundations in a thermal environment is investigated.The governing equation is derived on the basis of Eringen＇s nonlocal elasticity and the classical plate theory（CLPT）.The initial thermal loading is assumed to be due to a uniform temperature rise throughout the thickness direction. Using the generalized differential quadrature（GDQ）method and periodic differential operators in radial and circumferential directions, respectively, the governing equation is discretized. DLGSs with clamped and simply-supported boundary conditions are studied and the influence of van der Waals（vd W） interaction forces is taken into account.In the numerical results, the effects of various parameters such as elastic medium coefficients, radius-to-thickness ratio,thermal loading and nonlocal parameter are examined on both in-phase and anti-phase natural frequencies. The results show that the thermal load and elastic foundation respectively decreases and increases the fundamental frequencies of DLGSs.

Ethnic Differences in Thermal Responses between Thai and Japanese Females in Tropical Urban Climate

The outdoor thermal environment might become worse than at present. It causes health injuries through the deterioration of the outdoor thermal condition. It is necessary to study how humans stay outdoors and adjust to thermal conditions. The purpose of this study was to clarify the influence of the outdoor tropical urban thermal environment on a subject who has been acclimatized to the environment studied using the outdoor thermal environment evaluation index ETFe. In addition, the tendency of human impacts was clarified through comparison to subjects from a temperate thermal environment region. As a result, it was found that an ETFe of up to 35°C could be recognized as a temperate thermal environment. However, when the ETFe was greater than 40°C, the subject could not tolerate the environment. There was not a significant difference of psychological reaction between Thai people, who were acclimatized to the tropical climate, and Japanese people, who were acclimatized to the temperate climate.

Study of main factors influencing unsteady-state temperature drop in oil tank storage under dynamic thermal environment coupling

With the increasing oil demand, the construction of oil energy reserves in China needs to be further strengthened. However, given that there has been no research on the main influencing factors of crude oil temperature drop in storage tanks under actual dynamically changing environments, this paper considers the influence of dynamic thermal environment and internal crude oil physical properties on the fluctuating changes in crude oil temperature. A theoretical model of the unsteady-state temperature drop heat transfer process is developed from a three-dimensional perspective. According to the temperature drop variation law of crude oil storage tank under the coupling effect of various heat transfer modes such as external forced convection, thermal radiation, and internal natural convection, the external dynamic thermal environment influence zone, the internal crude oil physical property influence zone, and the intermediate transition zone of the tank are proposed. And the multiple non-linear regression method is used to quantitatively characterize the influence of external ambient temperature, solar radiation, wind speed, internal crude oil density, viscosity, and specific heat capacity on the temperature drop of crude oil in each influencing zone. The results of this paper not only quantitatively explain the main influencing factors of the oil temperature drop in the top, wall, and bottom regions of the tank, but also provide a theoretical reference for oil security reserves under a dynamic thermal environment.