NATURAL CONVECTION HEAT LOSS IN BUILDINGS

Natural convection heat loss is an issue that needs to be considered when
designing the building. Energy lost to the surrounding will increase the overall energy
consumed by the building for heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) system.
Understanding the relationship between window opening ratio and heat transfer rate
will enable better prediction of heat loss through the window, thus improving the
building design. This final dissertation will discuss about the project objective of
finding correlation between windows-to-wall sizes ratio and heat transfer coefficient via
natural convection, scope, relevancy and also feasibility of the study. Literature review
is done on previous studies and journals on natural convection in building. Related
information from American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning
(ASHRAE) standard has been included as well. Research methodology is described
briefly which mostly involves analyzing the data obtained from the experiments
conducted. Experimental setup is based on the real life building compartment with
different opening ratio of the window. Engineering theory used to integrate the building
model to the heat transfer calculation is described in a detailed manner. Data analysis is
done and shown to indicate how the opening ratio effect the correlation linking the main
parameters involved in natural convection which are Nusselt and Rayleigh numbers.
Discussion on the results obtained as well as errors that might hinders the accuracy of
them is also included. Smaller opening ratio leads to a more turbulent flow natural
convectional heat transfer is the conclusion that can be derived from this project results.