International Journal of Scientific & Engineering Research Volume 9, Issue 4, April-2018 238

ISSN 2229-5518

ANALYSIS OF RADIANT COOLING IN CONCRETE

SLABS WITH EMBEDDED PIPES
ABHINAVA KARABA, V VIJENDRA BHAT, PRAMOD UPADHYAYA R, ANUPRAJ JATHANNA, ARUN M KRAMADHARI

Abstract— Radiation is an effective and proven way of heat transfer since ancient times; particularly radiant heating that
has been in existence in Europe since several centuries. But radiant cooling is a relatively new application of radiation
heat transfer and is being used widely in Europe and to some extent in the US since the last 15 – 20 years. Radiant
cooling is highly efficient compared to regular air conditioning due to the high water temperatures used, minimized air
system and also better quality of thermal comfort. This paper reviews about the results of the experimental analysis of
area 4 sq. ft. and also the variation of temperature of the slab and room when different flow rates are maintained. The
appreciable amount of heat was extracted from the slab and the room temperature was maintained at 32°C and the
2
amount of average heat extracted was about 0.5-1 kW/m .

Index terms— Heat, power, radiation, radiant cooling, slab, water.

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1 INTRODUCTION

R ADIANT cooling system is a promising technique,

which is suitable for independent control processes of
temperature and humidity. The two main benefits of
ing, floor or walls. Majority of the cooling process results
from removing sensible heat through radiant exchange with
people and objects and not air, occupant thermal comfort
radiant cooling systems include the potential to save energy can be achieved with warmer interior air temperatures than
and improvement of indoor thermal comfort. Interests in with air based cooling systems. Combined with higher cool-
radiant cooling systems have increased in recent years and ing capacity of water than air, and the having a cooled sur-

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there is no standardized method for radiant system design face close to the desired indoor air temperature, radiant
that is broadly accepted by the building industry. Design cooling systems offer significant reductions in cooling ener-
guidelines have provided the principles and methods of gy consumption [2].
designing radiant cooling systems, the use of operative tem- Radiant ceiling panel (RCP) and embedded surface sys-
perature for comfort control, and cooling capacity estima- tem (ESS) are two water based radiant cooling systems. In
tion. However, there seems to be no obvious source of guid- ESS cooling from a slab can be delivered to a space from the
ance on how to apply the design principles to applications floor or ceiling. Floor cooling is similar to floor heating that
and on the selection of tools for analyzing performance and has been used in Europe since last few decades. However,
optimizing design. [1]. delivering cooling from the ceiling has several advantages:
Radiant cooling cools a floor or ceiling by absorbing the 1. It is easier to leave ceilings exposed to a room than
heat radiated from the rest of the room. When the floor is floors, increasing the effectiveness of thermal mass.
cooled, it is often referred to as radiant floor cooling; cooling Floors have furniture, coverings and furnishings that
the ceiling is usually done in homes with radiant panels. decrease the effectiveness of the system.
Most radiant cooling applications have been based on alu- 2. Greater convective heat exchange occurs through a
minum panels suspended from the ceiling, through which chilled ceiling as warm air rises, leading to more air
chilled water is circulated. To be effective, the panels must coming in contact with the cooled surface [3].
be maintained at a temperature very near the dew point In RCP cooling panels are generally attached to ceilings,
within the house, and the house must be kept dehumidified. but can also be attached to walls. They are usually suspend-
Structures built on concrete slabs are prime candidates for ed from the ceiling, but can also be directly integrated with
radiant cooling systems, and radiant ceiling/floor cooling continuous dropped ceilings. Modular construction offers
takes advantage of the same principle using chilled water. increased flexibility in terms of placement and integration
Radiant cooling systems typically use chilled water run- with lighting or other electrical systems. Lower thermal
ning in pipes in thermal contact with the surface. The circu- mass compared to chilled slabs means they can’t easily take
lating water only needs to be 2-4°C below the desired indoor advantage of passive cooling from thermal storage, but con-
air temperature. Heat is removed by the water flowing in trols in panels can more quickly adjust to changes in out-
the hydronic circuit once the heat from different sources in door temperature. Chilled panels are also better suited to
buildings with spaces that have a greater variance in cooling
————————————————
• 1,,3,4,5 Students, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Shri
loads. Perforated panels also offer better acoustical dampen-
ing than chilled slabs. Ceiling panels are also very suitable
Madhwa Vadiraja Institute of Technology and Management, Bantakal,
for retrofits as they can be attached to any ceiling. Chilled
• 2 Assistant Professor, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Shri
Udupi- 574114, India.
ceiling panels can be more easily integrated with ventilation
Madhwa Vadiraja Institute of Technology and Management, Bantakal, supplied from the ceiling. Panels tend to cost more per unit
• [email protected], +91 9483927493
Udupi- 574114, India.
of surface area than chilled slabs [3].
Now a days ESS is used more compared to RCP systems.
The piping material used in ESS are usually copper but due
the space is absorbed by the actively cooled surface i.e., ceil-
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International Journal of Scientific & Engineering Research Volume 9, Issue 4, April-2018 239
ISSN 2229-5518

to its high cost and difficulty in embedding it inside con- iment. Actual operation characteristics of concrete ceiling
crete, it has been replaced by the cross linked polythene panel cooling system were analyzed according to measured
(PEx) as it is cheaper and durable compared to copper pip- data. The cooling capacity of the concrete panel was influ-
ing [4]. enced by supply water temperature, distance of tubes and
water flow rate [9].
Zhen Tian and James A. Love described that through in-
2 LITERATURE REVIEW tegrated field measurements and building simulation with
Several authors discuss thermal comfort in spaces with a Energy Plus, it was found that the building energy perfor-
radiant cooling ceiling. A few papers published in confer- mance could be improved by reducing conflicts between
ence proceedings and scientific journals describe computer systems, especially simultaneous heating and cooling. Con-
modelling of the system with cooling ceiling. Some of the trol strategies to coordinate air and radiant system operation
published papers are, are crucial to improve the overall building energy perfor-
Takehito Imanari along with Toshiaki Omori and mance. Use of “low quality” cooling sources with radiant
Kazuaki Bogaki described an experimental investigation of slab cooling was also considered [10].
thermal comfort and the numerical simulation of energy Tomas Mikeska carried out theoretical investigations
consumption in 1999. The purpose of this study was to in- with a CFD model of the test room. The aim of the develop-
vestigate various characteristics of radiant ceiling panel sys- ment of the CFD model was to allow for a deeper under-
tem and its applications [5]. standing of the diffuse ceiling inlet and wall radiant system
Fariba Alamdari (1998) presents the room air distribu- and to facilitate efficient and economical optimization of the
tion and thermal environment of combined displacement design taking into account various parameters. The results
ventilation and cooled ceiling systems. A field flow model of the investigations presented show that a diffuse ceiling
based on computational fluid dynamics (CFD) was used to inlet can successfully ventilate and cool the room with a
simulate comparative environmental performance of dis- high density of occupants using supply air at an average
placement ventilation with and without cooling ceiling [6]. temperature of 21°C. The resulting cooling power was 23
Guruprakash Shastry, Senior manager – Green Initia- W/m2 at a flow rate of 5.8 l/s·m2 of floor area. The average
tives, Infosys reviews the radiant cooling system present in a air temperature in the test room was 24.5°C. The cooling
building at Hyderabad Infosys Campus and states that the power of 32 W/m2 was available at a flow rate of 8.0 l/s·m2
radiant cooling system consumed 33% less energy when of floor area, which resulted in an average air temperature in

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compared to the conventional air-conditioning system for the test room of 24°C. This creates a comfortable indoor en-
the period April 2011 - March 2012. The building has a total vironment without draughts. Sufficient mixing was obtained
built-up area of about 24000 sq. m. distributed into east and mainly as a result of the interaction of incoming air and heat
west wings of 11600 sq. m. each and a central wing of about sources situated in the test room. The diffuse ceiling inlet
800 sq. m. About 85% of the total building area is air- can therefore be considered a well-performing alternative to
conditioned office area and the total occupancy of the build- the traditional means of mechanical ventilation in spaces
ing is about 2500. The most significant feature of the build- with a high density of occupants. The results also show that
ing is that it is split into two symmetric halves. One half is plastic capillary tubes integrated in a layer of high perfor-
cooled by conventional (but very efficient) air conditioning mance concrete can provide the energy needed for cooling
and the other half by radiant cooling [7]. between 29 W/m2 and 59 W/m2 of floor area with cooling
Bjarne W. Olesen reviews that for well-designed build- water temperatures between 22°C and 18°C. This resulted in
ings these types of system are capable of providing a com- indoor air temperatures of 24.5°C and 22°C, respectively,
fortable indoor climate both in summer and in winter in dif- and a draught-free indoor environment. The relatively high
ferent climatic zones. Various control concepts and corre- reaction speed of the designed system of radiant cooling was
sponding energy performance are presented. To remove achieved as a result of the slim construction of high perfor-
latent heat, these systems may be combined with an air sys- mance concrete. Measured values were used to validate a
tem. This air system can, however, be scaled down with the developed CFD model, with the aim of achieving a precise
benefit of improved comfort (noise, draught) compared to CFD model which can be used to evaluate indoor comfort
full air-conditioning. An added benefit can be added by re- numerically. The results show that transient calculations
ducing building height. Finally, surface heating and cooling using Large Eddy Simulation turbulent models can give a
systems use water at a temperature close to room tempera- good prediction of temperatures and air flow velocity mag-
ture. This increases the possibility of using renewable ener- nitude in a room ventilated using a diffuse ceiling inlet.
gy sources [8]. However, steady-state turbulent models needed to be ap-
Lin Su et al.., reviews that Concrete ceiling panel cooling plied to obtain adequate predictions in the rooms equipped
system had advantages of comfort and energy saving. This with a wall radiant cooling system [11].
study presented heat transfer and cooling characteristics of
the concrete ceiling radiant cooling panel. Two dimensional
mathematical model of steady state heat transfer was devel- 3 EXPERIMENTAL SETUP
oped by using finite difference method. Heat transfer in the The experimental setup or model is based on the typical
concrete panel was numerically simulated. Temperatures of building. The slab of 4 sq. ft. area was pre-casted and then
interior and surface of the concrete panel were obtained. was placed on the room of 3 sq. ft. area with the wall thick-
According to calculated results, temperature distribution of ness of 150mm. A window of area 150 x 150 mm2 and a ven-
the concrete panel was analyzed under the condition of dif- tilation of area 200 x 70 mm2 was provided for the room for
ferent supply water temperatures and distances of tubes, continuous circulation of air inside the room.
and the numerical model was accurate enough by the exper- Another slab was pre-casted along with the copper tub-
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International Journal of Scientific & Engineering Research Volume 9, Issue 4, April-2018 240
ISSN 2229-5518

ing of 3mm diameter embedded in it. This slab placed above

the room. A 12.5 mm thick hollow box was prepared from
Galvanized Iron sheets and inlet and outlet provisions for
circulation of water was given in it. Also a solar water heater
model was prepared of size 4 sq. ft. for further heating of
water with a black glass on top of it.
The slab with copper tubing was placed on top of the
room and then the box of GI sheet was placed on top of it.
Also the arrangement for further heating of water was
placed on top of the GI sheet box with an insulating layer in
between them. The piping for inlet and outlet of water and
the temperature sensors were placed at inlet to slab, inlet to Fig. 2. Piping inside the slab
GI sheet, outlet from slab, outlet from GI sheet, inside the
room. Figure 1 shows the schematic block diagram of the
setup. Figure 2 shows the slab with the copper tube embed- 4 METHODOLOGY
ded in it.
The water is made to flow through the piping and then
flow rate (ṁ₁ and ṁ₂) was measured separately at the outlet
from slab and outlet from the GI sheet. Also the temperature
was noted down at different inlets and outlets (T₁, T₂ and
T₃). The water from both the outlets was then combined and
supplied to the top most layer for further heating of water
from solar radiation. From the obtained readings the
amount of heat extracted from the slab (Q) is calculated us-
ing the Heat and Mass transfer formulae.

1. Heat extracted from the slab with respect to embedded

tubes,

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Watt…………….. (1)
Fig. 1. Block diagram of the experimental setup
Where,
Q₁= Heat extracted from the slab with respect to embedded
Table 1: List of components tubes (W)
ṁ₁= Mass flow rate of water through the embedded tubes
(kg/s)
CP= Specific heat of water at avg. temp of T₁ and T₂ (J/kgK)
T₂= Outlet temperature of water from the tubing (K)
T₁= Inlet temperature of water in to the tubing (K)

2. Heat extracted from slab by GI sheet box,

Watt……………… (2)

Where,
3.1 Working Q₂= Heat extracted from the slab by GI sheet box (W)
The water is supplied to the copper piping inside the slab ṁ₂= Mass flow rate of water through the GI sheet box (kg/s)
and the GI sheet box simultaneously. Once the water starts flow- CP= Specific heat of water at avg. temp of T₁ and T₃ (J/kgK)
ing through the piping and the box it starts absorbing heat from T₃= Outlet temperature of water from the tubing (K)
the slab through conduction from both inner (piping) and outer T₁= Inlet temperature of water in to the tubing (K)
(box) layers, thus reducing the temperature of the slab. Thus the
room gives away the extra heat to the chilled slab by means of 3. Total amount of heat extracted from the slab,
convection which in turn results in the temperature drop inside
the room. The heated water from both piping and the box is then Qₐ = [(Q₁ + Q₂)/ Area of the slab] W/m2……….. (3)
sent to the top most layer for further heating by solar radiation.
This hot water can be then utilized for the domestic as well as
power generation. 5 EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS
Experiment was carried out on the setup and results
were obtained for four different cases. In all the four cases
variation of the room temperature with respect to time was
observed and noted. Also the heat extraction from the slab
and by the solar radiation was calculated. This heat extrac-
tion from the slab also resulted in the reduction of room
temperature. The results of the various cases are,
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International Journal of Scientific & Engineering Research Volume 9, Issue 4, April-2018 241
ISSN 2229-5518

kW/m2. This was due to the presence of the GI box. The

CASE 1: Slab without any flow of water. Table 4 and Table 5 show various readings of case 3.
In this case there was no flow of water inside the em-
bedded tubes and the slab is kept open to the direct solar Table 4: Temperature readings of case 3.
radiation. It is the same condition as that of the normal
building. Here the room temperature will be almost equal to
that of ambient temperature because there is no cooling pro-
cess taking place. Also the slab temperatures will be high
and they will radiate the heat absorbed from the sun into the
room. Table 2 shows the temperature readings in case 1.

Table 2: Readings of Case 1.

Table 5: Heat extracted in case 3.

All the cases was studied with an average water

temperature of 32°C. Each case was studied from 9.00AM to
CASE 4: Slab with water flow along with water flow
4.30PM.
through GI box and solar water heater with insulation in
CASE 2: Slab with flow of water.

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between.
In Case2 water was passed only through embedded
Compared to all the previous cases this one is the best
pipes and the temperature distribution was noted down.
suited case for cooling the room. The slab here is completely
The room temperatures decreased as a result of heat extrac-
insulated from the solar radiation because of two layers pre-
tion from the slab. The heat inside the room was then ab-
sent above the slab. Also there is an insulating layer between
sorbed by the chilled slab. Here the cooling effect can be
the solar water heater and GI box. The only heat entering the
increased by decreasing the inlet water temperature. Table 3
room will be through the walls and via air flow taking place
shows that the room temperature can be maintained by var-
between the room and environment. In order to cool the
ying the temperature of water as well as the flowrate of wa-
room the water temperature must be lower than that of am-
ter. Average heat extracted was 0.131 kW/m2. The room
bient temperature.
temperature was maintained at an average of 32°C.
The heat extraction here will be more since solar water
Table3: Readings and heat extracted in Case 2. heater is used in this case. The heat obtained in this case is at
an average of 1 kW/m2. Table 6 and Table 7shows different
readings of case 4 and also imply that room temperature has
notably lower compared to other cases. Also the water gets
heated from solar radiation along with the heat extraction
from the slab. Maximum temperature of water that can be
obtained from the solar radiation is about 60°C (by using flat
plate collector). This temperature can be furthermore in-
creased up to 90°C by using parabolic mirrors or using black
tubes. The temperature obtained can be utilized for domestic
CASE 3: Slab with water flow in addition with water flow purposes as well as power generation.
inside GI box.
In case 3 along with embedded tubes, a GI box is placed Table 6: Temperature readings of case 4.
directly above the slab and water is passed through it. This
GI box extracts heat from the upper layer of the slab and
also partially insulates the solar radiation falling on the slab.
On the day of experimentation, the weather was slightly
forecast. So the water temperature exiting the GI box was
low and since there was lesser air movement in the atmos-
phere, the room temperature was slightly more than ex-
pected. If the air movement is good then the temperature of
the room will reduce since some amount of heat is carried
away by the air. The average heat extracted was 0.59
Table 7: Heat extracted in case 4.

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CFD simulations can be performed to validate the test re-

sults and optimization of the flow parameters, the fluid
properties can be performed to improve the performance of
the radiant cooling systems [12].

REFERENCES
[1] ASHRAE Handbook. HVAC systems and equipment. Chapter 6. Panel
heating and Cooling design.
[2] http://www.oorja.in/what-is-radiant-cooling/how-does- radiant-cooling-
work/
[3] http://www.oorja.in/what-is-radiant-cooling/types-of- radiant-cooling-
systems/
5.1 GRAPHS [4] Radiant cooling Design Manual, First Edition (2013), published by Uponor,
Inc.
[5] Imanari, T., Omori, T., Bogaki, K., Thermal comfort and energy consump-
tion of the radiant ceiling panel system. Comparison with the conventional
all-air system, Energy and Buildings 30, pp 167 – 175, 1999.
[6] Alamdari, F., Displacement ventilation and cooling ceilings, Proceedings of
Room vent ‘98, pp. 197-204, Stockholm 1998.
[7] Guruprakash Sastry, First radiant cooled commercial building in India –
critical analysis of energy, comfort and cost.
[8] Bjarne W Olesen, Radiant Heating and Cooling by Embedded water based
Systems, Technical University of Denmark, 2008
[9] Lin Su, Nianping Li, Xuhan Zhang, Yeyao Sun, Jiawei Qian (2015) Heat
transfer and cooling characteristics of concrete ceiling radiant cooling panel.
[10] Zhen Tian, James A. Love, An integrated study of radiant slab cooling
systems through experiment and building simulation, Ninth International

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IBPSA Conference Montreal, Canada ,August 15-18, 2005.
[11] Tomas Mikeska, Energy performance of ventilation, heating and cooling
systems integrated in sandwich panel of high performance concrete.
Fig. 3. Variation of Room Temperature Vs Time. [12] S. M. Masutani and P. K. Takahashi, Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion
(OTEC).
Figure 3 shows the variation of room temperature with
time. From the graph it is noted that case 4 is most efficient
compared to all cases. Also comparison of case 3 and case 2
cannot be done due to changes in weather but can be con-
cluded that those two cases yield almost same results with
higher heat extraction in case 3. The graph also implies that
without any setup for cooling (case 1) the room temperature
is same as that of the ambient temperature. This comparison
tells that the room cooling has been done in all other cases.

6 CONCLUSION
Various experiments have been conducted using the ra-
diant cooling technique using embedded copper tubes in the
concrete slab. It has been noticed that there the water circu-
lated in the embedded tubes had an increase of temperature
of 2-5°C during the test. This increase in temperature leads
to extraction of an average of 0.5-1kW/m2 out of the con-
crete slab which would have otherwise caused in the in-
crease of the room temperature. During the test the room
temperature was constant at an average temperature of 32°C
and the slab temperature was maintained at 34°C. This is a
confirmation of the radiant cooling. The effectiveness of the
radiant cooling system can be increased by using sub-cooled
water.
The hot water obtained from the top layer can be used
for domestic purposes if the surface area for heating is
smaller i.e. in houses. If the surface area is large enough say
industries then one can go for power generation. The current
work can be extended to generate power to improve the
overall performance of the radiant cooling system. Further
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