Minoru Mizuno

Numerical study on a low energy architecture based upon distributed heat storage system

Basic performance of a hybrid heating system was investigated numerically through several case studies including examinations of effects of PCM as a heat storing materials. A simple test room assuming passive utilization of solar energy was used with a thermal storage wall (Trombe wall) inside it. Unsteady simulation was performed with a CFD code developed by authors. As the outdoor conditions, standardized weather data of Sapporo city, a cold climate district in Japan, were used. In the simulation, the room air was controlled with the heater operations setting the target air temperature at 18 degree Celsius. Simulated results indicate the effectiveness of PCM and suggest the possibility of developing low energy houses with hybrid system introduced in this study.

Evaluation of the thermal environment in an outdoor pedestrian space

To get information for the design of thermal environment in urban outdoor space, field measurements of the physico-thermal environment and a survey of subjective evaluation of the thermal environment by pedestrians were performed. From the results of the survey, it becomes clear that thermal sensitivity of the subjects was affected by the history of exposure and uncomfortable thermal sensation tends to concentrate around intersections.

Field Study and Modeling of Semi-Transparent PV in Power, Thermal and Optical Aspects

abstract In this research, semi-transparent PV is proposed as building integrated PV roof for residential application. To understand its characteristics, field measurement was carried out to examine the power generation, thermal and visible light transmission performance of poly-crystalline silicon single glass, poly-crystalline silicon double glass and amorphous silicon single glass semi-transparent PV panels in prototype scale. To confirm parameters needed in accessing semi-transparent PV panels which are seldom provided by manufacturers, calculation models were constructed and verified with field measurement data. This paper reports the findings of experimental and modeling work, which will be fundamental for evaluating semi-transparent PV in overall building energy performance in a later stage of the research. In this study, power generation temperature coefficients are obtained for each panel. For thermal characteristics, various material properties of panels are confirmed. The overall heat transfer coefficients are 4.587 W/m2K, 2.007 W/m2K and 4.379 W/m2K for p-Si single glass, p-Si double glass and a-Si single glass panel respectively. With respect to visible light transmission, semi-transparent PV possesses similar light transmission characteristics with glazing material, and thus could be modeled in the same way as normal glazing material.

DISCRIMINATION OF THERMAL SENSATION IN UNHOMOGENEOUS THERMAL ENVIRONMENTS USING THEORY OF QUANTIFICATION II

Abstract 1. 1. One hundred and forty-five thermal-sensation tests by subjects were performed in unhomogeneous thermal environments and the whole body and the lower leg thermal-sensations were discriminated with physical data of the thermal environments using the discrimination analysis and the expanded theory of quantification II which is able to deal with data including quantitative continuous-variables and qualitative category-variables simultaneously. 2. 2. The discrimination of the whole-body thermal-sensations on the basis of the local-body thermal sensations was also done. 3. 3. As a result, it is shown that the discrimination analysis and the expanded theory of quantification II are able to discriminate the thermal sensation in unhomogeneous environments.