ASHRAE Journal - October 2011 - 66

twenty chemical species, two concentrations for each chemical species and two aging temperatures for each concentration. Suggest decomposition mechanisms, based on the identity of the decomposition products. The effects of temperatures and initial process ﬂuid concentrations on the decomposition products will be determined. Compare the data from the tests with the chemical species to that from the control samples (with no chemical) in order to identify which chemical species or chemical classes are likely to cause ontamination in the R-134a/POE refrigeration systems. for Filling Climatic Data 1413-RP Developing Standard ProceduresMonitoring and Analysis Gaps for Use in Building Performance
September 2011 – March 2013; University of Oklahoma; Principal Investigator, Yang Hong; TC 4.2, Climatic Information

compared to catalog ratings. The wasted energy was estimated in millions of megawatts per year. The estimated capital expenditures necessary to resolve the comfort and noise problems are over several million dollars. Improved knowledge of the precise values for these system effects could greatly reduce both the amount of wasted energy and unanticipated capital expenditures. The objective of this project is to obtain a body of measured inlet and discharge system effects for both air and sound for two typical sizes (12 in., 27 in. ) AF.

1431-RP

Analysis of Transient Characteristics, Effectiveness, and Optimization of Cleanroom Airlocks

December 2007 – January 2012 (P); ENGSYSCO, Inc.; Principal Investigator, Wei Sun; TC 9.11, Clean Spaces

The objectives of this proposed effort are to develop standard procedures, in the form of an ASHRAE Toolkit, for ﬁlling in missing measured climatic data and to verify the robustness of these procedures by testing them for several actual and synthetic data from the appropriate case study sites. Key climatic variables of interest include (but are not limited to): dry-bulb temperature, dew-point and wet-bulb temperature, wind speed and direction, total, diffuse, and direct normal solar radiation. It is further anticipated that different procedures will be needed depending on the type of missing climatic data (e.g., temperature, humidity, wind, solar). For example, the interpolation of missing temperature data might be best performed with one method, whereas the interpolation of missing wind speed or solar data would need another.

1415-RP Thermal and Lighting Performance Metrics of Tubular Daylighting Devices
May 2010 – October 2011; National Research Council Canada; Principal Investigator, Aziz Laouadi; TC 4.5, Fenestration

This research is intended to provide computational algorithms to support the development of fenestration rating standards, the ASHRAE load toolkit, and building-energy and lighting simulation software. Building designers (lighting designers, architects and engineers) will be better able to specify energy-efﬁcient tubular daylighting devices (TDD) in commercial and residential buildings with more conﬁdence, and to show compliance with existing building energy codes and energy efﬁciency standards. To speed up technology transfer to the building/fenestration design community, this research will develop a simple design guide for generic types of TDD’s, which will be included in the Fenestration Chapter of a future edition of the ASHRAE Handbook of Fundamentals. The guide will also provide useful information to include in the Daylighting Chapter of a future edition of the IESNA handbook. The validated algorithms will be more likely to be adopted in fenestration rating standards since the latter do not currently provide any simulation procedure to rate TDD’s. Manufacturers of TDD’s will then beneﬁt from a signiﬁcant cost reduction to rate their products.

Though widely utilized as a de-contamination barrier, the performance and effectiveness of airlocks have not been thoroughly studied and proper design guidelines are not yet available in the industry. Airlocks are either designed by cleanroom architects and engineers or manufactured as pre-engineered equipment by factories based on their intuition and past experience. Due to lack of industrial standards, poor design of airlocks result in sever failures of the airlock operations such as excessive pressure loss during airlock door opening and closing; leakage of chemical fume and microbiological agent (toxic, harmful and/or infectious) into corridor and other general ofﬁce areas; contamination of clean products by large particles with frequent door trafﬁc; and unnecessary high air change rate. For applications where product quality or personal safety is critical, unreliable, poor performance, and/or malfunctioning airlocks are unacceptable. The speciﬁc objectives of this proposed research are as follows: •	 Establish quantitative relationships between airlock parameters and its effectiveness. Conduct experiments in a selected cleanroom test lab and gather test data for various conditions; •	 Develop a CFD model to simulate test conditions, and the model needs to be validated and calibrated; and •	 Utilize the results from both ﬁeld tests and CFD analysis and establish the airlock design guidelines, identify the cost-effective approaches (such as better contamination result, energy saving and space saving) for performance improvement, and establish the preliminary method of airlock performance evaluation.

1444-RP

Experimental Evaluation and Prediction of Two-Phase Pressure Drops and Flow Patterns in U-bends for R-134a and R-410A

October 2007 – September 2011; Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (EPFL); Principal Investigator, John Thome; TC 1.3, Heat Transfer and Fluid Flow

1416-RP Development of Internal Surface Convection Correlations for Energy and Load Calculation Methods
April 2008 – August 2011; University of Texas-Austin; Principal Investigator, Atila Novoselac; TC 4.7, Energy Calculations

Currently there are no correlations developed for the environments with the vertical diffuser jets such as: 1) rooms with ceiling slot diffusers on external walls and 2) rooms with ﬂoor supply registers. This type of environment is common for rooms in the perimeter zone of a building, and previously developed convection correlations are not applicable because of considerably different airﬂow. The proposed research will signiﬁcantly improve the accuracy of load and energy calculations by developing convection correlations for these two common room air ﬂow conﬁgurations. the Trade-Off Between Grid 1418-RP OptimizingCoarse Grid CFD Modeling Resolution and Simulation Accuracy:
September 2008 – August 2011; University of Colorado; Principal Investigator, John Zhai; TC 4.10, Indoor Environment Modeling

The overall objective of this project is to explore, through both theoretical analysis and numerical experiment, the trade-off between CFD grid resolution and simulation accuracy and to provide guidelines for proper selection of CFD grids for simulating typical indoor airﬂow conditions. More speciﬁc goals of the project include: (1) Investigate systematically the inherent relationships between CFD grid resolution and simulation accuracy for typical ﬂow types encountered in various indoor environments and understand the inﬂuence of numerical viscosity on simulation results; (2) Develop decision matrices that can provide quantitative and practical guidelines on selecting appropriate grid resolutions for typical ﬂows in divers indoor environments based on the requirements of computing time and simulation accuracy; (3) Demonstrate and validate the application of the developed matrices for a few representative indoor ﬂow scenarios that have been well studied in previous physical experiments. Discharge Installation Effects on Airfoil (AF) 1420-RP Inlet andPlug Fans for Air and Sound Performance Centrifugal Plenum
April 2010 – January 2012 (P); AMCA International, Inc.; Principal Investigator, Mark Stevens; TC 5.1, Fans

In compact air-cooled coils for evaporators and condensers, many 180° return bends (called U-bends) are employed. A signiﬁcantly higher-pressure drop is found for tube bends when compared against straight tubes having the same total length. In practice, the signiﬁcant difference often found in predicted coil pressure drops compared to their associated bench test results is typically attributed to the effects of the U-bends. Hence, accurate designs require accurate U-bend pressure drop data, pressure drop data just after the U-bend and pressure drop prediction models to capture these two effects in order to properly optimize heat exchanger coils while at the same time optimizing the efﬁciency of the cycle. Taking into account the large number of U-bends in these kinds of units and the much higher pressure drop across the U-bends, the presently proposed project is an important stepping stone towards the realization of more effective use of pressure drops and thus higher energy efﬁcient units. The key objectives of this project are (1) Perform experimental test matrix on U-bends for two bend radii using four tube diameters with the refrigerants R-134a, R-410A and ammonia to obtain U-bend pressure drop data and its effect on the pressure drops in a straight tube downstream of the U-bend; (2) Determine the ﬂow pattern at the outlet of the U-bend; (3) Develop new prediction methods incorporating two-phase ﬂow patterns in order to predict pressure drops in the U-bends and its effect on the straight tube pressure drop with attention to U-bend radius effects for vapor qualities up to 0.9 and mass velocities of 100, 230 and 300 kg/m 2s, as an extension to an existing straight tube ﬂow pattern based model.

1448-RP

Ventilation Requirements for Refrigerating Machinery Rooms

September 2009 –January 2012; CPP Inc.; Principal Investigator, Ronald Petersen; TC 4.3, Ventilation , Requirements & Infiltration

Very little information exists for accurately predicting the aerodynamic and acoustical response of centrifugal plenum fans to common appurtenances at the fan inlet and discharge. The existing information for these system effects on air performance is limited to housed centrifugal fans. No experimental data exists for system effects on sound. The signiﬁcance of system effects on plenum fans due to inlet and discharge appurtenances is widely accepted. Reports of installed performance indicate reductions in total efﬁciency of over 25% and sound power (Lw) increases of over 10 dB when

ASHRAE Standard 15 - Safety Standard for Refrigeration Systems- includes requirements for the ventilation of refrigeration machinery rooms to maintain safety. The theoretical basis for these requirements has never been established so their effectiveness in providing refrigeration room safety is in question. Given the 3 order of magnitude range of acceptable refrigerant concentrations vs. the more limited range of ventilation required by the Standard, it is likely that refrigeration rooms are either signiﬁcantly under-ventilated or over-ventilated. The objective of this project is to conduct research to establish a technical basis for the refrigeration room ventilation requirements. This will include examining historical refrigerant release accidents to establish the most likely accident scenario, and then determine ventilation system requirements from basic principles needed to maintain safety during and after such an accident. The results are intended to be used as the basis of an addendum to Standard 15 revising machinery room ventilation requirements.

1449-RP

Energy Efficiency and Cost Assessment of Humidity Control Options for Residential and Small Commercial Buildings

September 2008 – September 2011; Building Energy Corporation; Principal Investigator, Armin Rudd; TC 6.3, Central Forced Air Heating and Cooling Systems; AHRTI $50,000 co-funder

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ASHRAE Journal

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October 2011
ASHRAE Journal - October 2011

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of ASHRAE Journal - October 2011
