CFD simulation of thermal performances of building structure with expanded polystyrene (EPS) as thermal insulation

Abstract

In this paper a three dimensional (3D), Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) simulation for indoor air flow and heat transfer in a single room was developed. The multi-layer structure building envelop, with expanded polystyrene (EPS) as thermal insulation inside, has been included into simulation and its influence on thermal performances were analysed. The indoor air flow and temperature distribution were analysed for different thicknesses of EPS insulations and were compared to the case without insulation. The commercial software FLUENT has been used in the simulation. The air flow due to natural convection is included into the model through a buoyancy-driven flow. The realizable k- model, based on Reynolds-Averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) equations, is used for modelling of the turbulence in air flow. The radiator model with thermal flux as input parameter is used for simulation of heating of the room. In order to resolve flow in boundary layer high resolution grid near walls and low-Reynolds number has been used. According to the presented results the thickness of thermal insulation has significant influence on the indoor air flow and the temperature distribution inside the building.