ASHRAE Journal - October 2020 - 79

RESEARCH REPORT

Lin; TC 4.10, Indoor Environmental Modeling; co-sponsored by: TC 9.9, Mission Critical Facilities,
Data Centers, Technology Spaces and Electronic Equipment

ammonia is needed. Engineers working to design ammonia evaporators and
The primary objective of this research project is to provide CFD model- condensers will be able to make use of this new information to predict
ing guidance for data center applications. The guidance will be based on refrigerant pressure drop more accurately thereby improving equipment
experimental and CFD analyses of several data center conﬁgurations to designs for increased efﬁciency and performance
be conducted as part of this study as well as other work available in the
literature.
Thermal and Moisture Transport Property Values
1696-RP for New Building and Insulating Materials
1677-RP

Measurements and Prediction of Waterside Fouling
Performance of Internally Enhanced Tubes in
Cooling Tower Applications

September 2013 - February 2021 (P); University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign., Principal
Investigator, Xinlei Wang & Tony Jacobi; TC 8.5, Liquid-to-Refrigerant Heat Exchangers

The objective of this research project will be to: 1) experimentally
determine the fouling resistance on smooth and enhanced tubes using
water representative of cooling tower applications. Experiments should
make use of water having varying levels of fouling potential. In addition to
a baseline test using a smooth tube, fouling tests of at least 5 internally
enhanced tubes shall be conducted. 2) Using the results of the experimental
study, as well as additional data from previous ASHRAE research and other
published works, a model of the fouling resistance shall be conﬁrmed,
modiﬁed, or developed. The model shall not preclude application to noncooling tower applications, such as might occur in enhanced tubes applied
to evaporators. 3) Propose a generalized calculation procedure or approach
to determining an appropriate fouling resistance for a "typical" application
of enhanced tubes in a cooling-tower water heat exchanger application.
Such a procedure should be suitable for publication as part of ASHRAE or
AHRI standards, such as AHRI Guideline E or AHRI Standard 550/590.
A method that represents an improvement in accuracy over the current
method of specifying a speciﬁc, constant fouling resistance regardless of
application conditions or enhanced geometry characteristics is desired.

September 2015 - Completed August 2020; Building Science Consulting, Inc.; Principal Investigator, Christopher J. Schumacher; TC 4.4, Building Materials and Building Envelope Performance

The principal justiﬁcation of this project is to ensure that the hygrothermal materials properties in the ASHRAE Handbook-Fundamentals continue
to be representative of the materials currently in use especially in view of
the use of different envelope systems and design and HVAC solutions for
very low energy and net-zero energy buildings. Designers will be able to
more conﬁdently perform hygrothermal modeling to optimize their buildings,
as well as promote the advantages of energy and hygric modeling to their
clients. The results of this project will support the calculations required in
ASHRAE 90.1, 90.2, 189.1, and 160, making those standards easier to use
and increasing their likelihood of adoption in more jurisdictions.
Thresholds of Tones in Noise as Related
1707-RP Annoyance
to Building Services Equipment
September 2018 - August 2020 (P); Purdue University; Principal Investigator, Patricia Davies;
TC 2.6, Sound and Vibration; Co-sponsored, TC 2.1, Physiology and Human Environment

As problems with noise can impact building owners, designers, developers, contractors and policy makers, this research has great value to the
society. We estimate that a large part of the society in total will be affected
within 10 years, as the data gathered in this project are embedded into the
ASHRAE Handbooks and eventually into design criteria, regarding noise
from building services equipment. A further beneﬁt is that manufacturers
of building services equipment will have quantitative guidelines with which
to benchmark their equipment. Eventually the data will lead to or inform the
Experimental Evaluation of Two-Phase Pressure
1683-RP Drop and Flow Pattern in U-Bends with Ammonia development of an industry-accepted metric to quantify the tonal nature
of equipment noise. The likelihood of this progress is high and is expected
April 2020-September 2022; GIK Institute of Engineering and Technology Natural Fluids Refrigto be adopted by the industry smoothly as there is currently a vacuum of
eration Center; Principal Investigator: Ahmad Abbas, Co-PI: Lorenzo Cremaschi
The refrigeration community worldwide depends on ASHRAE to provide information. We do not foresee any intellectual property rights resulting
basic information and knowledge for all types of working ﬂuids, including from this project.
ammonia. Ammonia is already a preferred refrigerant in commercial food
and beverage applications and many industrial refrigeration applications.
Sequences of Operation for HVAC
1711-RP Advanced
Systems-Phase II Central Plants and Hydronic
Because ammonia is a natural refrigerant with near-zero GWP, it is currently
Systems
being considered for use in many non-traditional commercial refrigeration September 2017 - Completed June 2020; Taylor Engineering; Principal Investigator, Steve
and air-conditioning applications. In traditional air-to-refrigerant heat Taylor; TC 1.4, Control Theory and Application
exchangers, the refrigerant passes through a series of tubes connected
ASHRAE members will beneﬁt due to the reduced time to prepare,
through a U-bend or a return bend. The pressure drop caused by this program, and commission control systems, as noted above. It is expected
U-bend is not properly studied in the case of ammonia as the refrigerant. that most DDC system manufacturers will program the ASHRAE sequences
Basic research to develop correlations for pressure drop in U-bends with into their systems so that they can be used or easily adapted for most any
O CTO B E R 2020

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ASHRAE Journal - October 2020

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of ASHRAE Journal - October 2020
