Simulation and experimental study of phase change cooling and heating wall radiation air conditioning system

This paper presents a case study of phase change cooling and heating wall radiant (PC-CHWR) air conditioning system application in an energy-saving renovation project in a laboratory in Wuhan, Hubei province in China. To test the thermal performance of the system, the PHOENICS software was utilized to simulate and analyse the indoor thermal environment in the laboratory under both winter and summer operating conditions. In addition, field experiments were also conducted under winter operation condition. By comparing the results between numerical simulation and field experiment, it is found that thermal performance of the PC-CHWR air conditioning system evaluated by these two evaluation methods are quite match. Moreover, the results also show that the PC-CHWR system can meet the cooling and heating load of the building within the acceptable range.