A floor convector heats or cools a room by transferring heat between a heat exchanger and the surrounding air. Adding a cross-flow fan can increase the airflow through the convector, but the actual performance depends strongly on how uniformly the air passes through the heat exchanger.
FlowMotion used CFD to analyse the airflow through a floor convector equipped with a cross-flow fan. The model included the relevant internal geometry, the fan and the aerodynamic resistance of the heat exchanger.
The simulations showed the local velocity and pressure distributions and revealed how the fan flow was distributed over the heat-exchanger surface. Regions with low local airflow contribute less to heat transfer, even when the total volumetric flow through the unit appears sufficient.
Different geometric configurations could therefore be compared with the aim of reducing internal pressure losses and making the airflow through the heat exchanger more uniform.
This provided a basis for improving thermal performance and room comfort without relying solely on a larger fan or higher fan speed.
