Testing and modelling of a novel ceiling panel for maintaining space relative humidity by moisture transfer

Radiant ceiling panels are preferred over all-air systems because of their ability to lower energy consumption and maintain better comfort conditions. One disadvantage is their inability to moderate indoor humidity. To overcome this limitation, a new panel that can transfer heat and moisture is being developed. This research determines the performance of this panel under different temperature and humidity conditions. The effectiveness of the panel ranges from 15% to 28%, depending on the conditions. A computational fluid dynamics model of the panel has been developed using the commercial software, FLUENT. Good agreement is seen between experiments and the model for most cases. Comparing the change in humidity ratio of the air, the average difference is 5%. (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.