Proceedings of the Fifth International Conference on Heating, Ventilation and Air-Conditioning

June 10-12, 2014, RIPI Conventions Center, Tehran, Iran

ICHVAC5-6111

Application of Floor Heating System in New Generation Sustainable Green Domes a

Taha Khademinejad1, Shahab Rahimzadeh2, Pouyan Talebizadeh3, Hassan Rahimzadeh4
1

Department of Mechanical Engineering, Amirkabir University of Technology; Email: taha_khademi@aut.ac.ir

2
School of Design, Creative industry faculty, Queensland University of Technology; Email:
Shahab.rahimzadeh85@gmail.com
3
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Amirkabir University of Technology; Email: talebizadeh.pouyan@aut.ac.ir
4
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Amirkabir University of Technology; Email: rahimzad@aut.ac.ir

Abstract
One of the most important energy consumers in rural
and urban areas are buildings. Therefore, the role of
heating and cooling systems is considerable in
buildings with high level of energy usage. Floor
heating system is a form of central heating system
which achieves indoor climate control for thermal
comfort using conduction, radiation and convection
heat transfer. In the present study, application of floor
heating system in a dome shape room is analyzed
numerically.
Moreover, the obtained results are
compared to the floor heating system in an ordinary
room with the same volume and 6m4m3m
dimensions. The required energy to establish thermal
comfort for residents in desired rooms is calculated by
simulating the velocity and temperature fields. The
velocity and temperature distribution as well as the
floor temperature are compared in both systems. The
primary results showed that in the dome shape room,
the required floor temperature for providing thermal
comfort condition is less than the ordinary room.
However, the total area of the floor is higher in the
dome shape room than the ordinary room.
Keywords: Dome shape rooms, Floor heating system,
Energy consumption, Indoor climate.
Introduction
The term sustainable building is introduced in the
contexts of sustainability. As there are many different
viewpoints about sustainability, there are also various
kinds of definition for sustainable buildings [1-4]. For
instance, Yashiro [1] defined sustainable buildings as
building that use resources efficiently and keep the
environment healthy.
Energy consumption plays a significant role in
analyzing the performance of sustainable buildings.
According to U.S. statistical report, the buildings in the
U.S. account for 36% of the total primary energy
consumption, of which residential buildings alone
account for 21%. Moreover, a large proportion of
greenhouse gases (GHG) emission, air pollutants and
solid wastes are produced by building sector due to the
large amount of energy consumption [5]. So, it can be
concluded that energy consumption of buildings
accounts for a large proportion of primary energy use
and GHG emissions. Thus it has great impact on the
environment and affects the sustainability of our future
life.

Nature itself has evolved for billions of years and there

should be lessons that can be learned about, especially
the habitats that have been built hormonally with the
environment by creatures [6]. Nature has provided us
many solutions on various aspects of sustainability,
including building material properties, building
envelope,
environmental
considerations,
team
integration and functionality [7]. Therefore, it is
possible to design sustainable buildings by learning
from nature. Designing buildings by learning from the
optimum forms existing in nature is a possible way to
fulfill this endeavor since these forms have undergone
billions of years of evolution and still exist in nature.
Dome structure is based on self-generating forms in
nature. It is based on the natural form-optimizing
process in biological structures and can be translated
into the architecture world in the form of new
generation homes. The dome configuration applies
natures principles of forming a highly efficient system
[8].
The aim of this research is to analyze the energy
consumption of a dome house, as an example of
designing sustainable buildings by learning from the
optimum biological forms existing in nature, since
energy consumption is an important indicator on the
sustainability of buildings. Only a few thermal models
have been presented for dome shape homes. More
attention has been given to the structural configuration
than to the thermal performance of dome-like homes.
Nara (1979) [9] presented a 2D CFD model for
calculating the air velocity and temperature distribution
due to thermal convection inside a reduced-model of a
farm building under adiabatic boundary condition. The
Boussinesq approximation is combined with the
Navier-Stokes equation to describe the natural
convection. Boulard et al. (1997) [10] used a reducedscale model of a greenhouse with high temperature of
floors to simulate the impact of solar radiation on the
greenhouse. The k- model was added to simulate the
turbulent flow. Grashof number (Gr) was used in these
two papers to ensure the similarity between the full
scale model and reduced scale experimental model.
Luttmann-Valencia (1990) [11] developed a single
node model that predicts the air temperature inside
Biosphere II, located in Arizona (U.S.). T. Nishioka et
al. (2000) [12] evaluated the indoor thermal
environments in a large domed stadium during the
summer. To satisfy such purposes, they take into

ICHVAC5-6111

account various intelligent mechanical systems to

control and create a suitable space and environment
without consuming excessive energy. Their
measurements included temperature distribution,
humidity, air flow and outdoor weather conditions for
three seasons. Shklyar and Arbel (2004) [13] examined
the wind-driven isothermal flow patterns and mass
fluxes in a full-scaled, pitched-roof, single span
glasshouse using standard and high-Reynolds-number
k- models. Lin and Zmeureanu (2008) [14] presented
a three-dimensional thermal and airflow (3D-TAF)
model that predicts the impact of large domes on the
heating load of the protected house. They focused on
the airflow model and made a comparison between
their simulation and CFD model. Faghih and Bahadori
(2011) [15] studied the thermal performance of domed
roofs in order to determine how they can be helpful in
reducing the maximum inside air temperature in
buildings during the warm seasons of the year. They
considered various parameters such as air flow around
dome roofs, solar radiation, radiation heat transfer with
the sky and the ground and openings on the building.
They concluded that the thermal performance of the
investigated domed roof is better than the building with
flat roof. Moreover, they found that openings cause
passive air flow inside building, which is helpful for
establishing thermal comfort. Croome and Moseley
(1984) [16], Sharma et al. (1999) [17], Singh et al.
(2006) [18] and Jain (2007) [19] presented numerical
models that predict the air temperature inside a dome
with lots of simplifying assumption. As an example,
they considered the convective heat transfer coefficient
to be constant and neglected the air movement inside
the dome.
In the present study, application of floor heating
system in a three dimensional dome room is simulated
numerically. The results are compared to a regular
cubic room with the same volume to predict the energy
consumption of two different kinds of rooms. The
boundary conditions, heat transfer coefficients and heat
source outputs are considered to be similar for both
rooms. The velocity and temperature fields are
calculated using the ANSYS Fluent 14.0 commercial
software.
Model description
In this study, floor heating system is simulated for a
dome house by means of Computational Fluid
Dynamic (CFD) and results are compared to the
regular cubic room in order to indicate the energy
saving capabilities and the comfort conditions of dome
shape houses. The simulated dome and cubic shape
rooms are graphically presented in Figure 1.
In order to have a better definition of 3D rooms, two
main sections that covered the entire room are defined
which are called door-mid-section and window-midsection. Door-mid-section is the plane of the 3D rooms
which contains the effect of door on the temperature
and velocity profiles (Figure 2.b). And also the effect
of window on the flow and thermal behavior of rooms
can be seen in window-mid-section (Figure 2.a).

Figure 1. Perspective view of modeled cubic and dome

shape rooms (dimensions are in meter)

Figure 2. a) door-mid-section and b) window-mid-section of

the 3D dome shape room

Boundary conditions, material and thermodynamic

properties of the problem for both dome shape and
cubic rooms are represented in Table 1. As tabulated in
this table, the boundary condition of walls, roof,
window and door are the same; however, constant heat
flux is assumed for the floor.
The simulation is performed in the climate condition of
Tehran, the capital city of Iran. According to this
consideration, the outdoor design temperatures is
considered to be 0C . Other design parameters that
have been taken into account are listed in Table 2.
Table 1. Boundary condition, material and thermodynamic
properties of the problem.
Walls and
Roof
Boundary
Convection to
condition
outdoor air
Lightweight
Material
cement
h (m)
0.2
k (W/m2K)
0.3
C (kJ/kg.K)
0.96
(kg/m3)
1600
(1/m)
0.1

Floor

Window

Door

Heat
flux

Convection to
outdoor air

Convection to
outdoor air

Wood

Glass

Wood

0.05
0.173
2.31
700
0

0.05
0.96
0.84
2800
0.04

0.07
0.173
2.31
700
0

where h is thickness (m), k is thermal conductivity

(W/m2K), C is specific heat (kJ/kg.K), is density

ICHVAC5-6111

(kg/m3) and is the Absorption coefficient (1/m) of

various room elements shown in Table 1.
Table 2. design parameters of Tehran which considered for
simulations.
Design parameters
Value
Summer daily range (K)
15
Elevation (m)
1219.8
Soil conductivity
0.8
( w / m .K )
Winter design dry bulb
266.45
temperature (K)
Winter coincident wet
264.35
bulb temperature (K)

In order to have a better understanding about the

temperature gradients, 3 reference lines are defined.
These reference lines are located in the middle of the
dome (middle reference line), near window (window
reference line) and near door (door reference line)
which can be seen in Figure 3. The lines are defined for
having a clear understanding about the temperature
change near energy consuming zones. More
specifications about the start and end points of
reference lines are shown in Table 3.

Figure 4. mesh structure on the midsection of a) dome room

and b) cubic room
295
294.5
294

Temperature (K)

Design parameters
Value
Latitude (deg)
35.7
Longitude (deg)
-51.4
Average ground
0.2
reflectance
Summer design dry
312.05
bulb temperature (K)
Summer coincident wet
297.05
bulb temperature (K)

293.5
293
292.5
292

Dome Room
Cubic Room

291.5
0

100000 200000 300000 400000 500000 600000 700000

Number of Grids

Figure 5. Mesh independency graph for dome and cubic

rooms

Figure 3. reference lines in the middle of the dome, near wall

and near window

When the temperature in the height of 1.8 meter above

the floor reaches to 295.15 K, the thermal comfort
condition is established. The results obtained from the
different grids show that increasing the grid numbers
by 41% (case II to case III) has a small influence
( 6.1 10 4 % ) on the temperature in thermal comfort
height. According to this refinement study, all further
simulations are performed with considering the case II
grid. Finally, it should be declared that the maximum
error of the residuals to reach to the steady state
solution is assumed to be of the order of 1 10 6 .

Table 3. coordinate specification of reference lines

middle reference line
window reference line
door reference line

From
(0,0,0)
(-1.9,0,0)
(0.45,0,1.9)

To
(0,2.98,0)
(-1.9,2.3,0)
(0.45,2.25,1.9)

Mesh structure
To obtain a physical pressure field, a non-uniform grid
for the three dimensional model of both dome shape
and cubic rooms is generated. Figure 4 shows the
meshed midsection of the rooms. As it is clear in
Figure 4 the cells near the wall are finer due to the
importance of these regions. For mesh independency,
three different resolutions shown in Table 4 and Figure
5 are considered to compare the obtained numerical
results.
Table 4. Grid independency test for two modelled rooms.
Case

I
II
III

Dome room
Number
Temperature
of grids
(K)
295608
291.83
404898
294.93
681926
295.11

Cubic room
Number
Temperature
of grids
(K)
40257
291.35
52801
294.88
89072
295.08

Numerical procedure
In this research, a finite-volume approach has been
used to solve the problem of flow and heat transfer of a
floor heating system in two different room types.
Numerical solutions were obtained iteratively for each
of cells to produce a solution that satisfies the
conservation laws for mass, momentum, and energy.
For incompressible, steady state and three-dimensional
airflow, the governing mass, momentum and energy
equations are as follow.

.( v ) S m
t

( v ) .( v v ) p . g F

t

(1)
(2)

( E ) .( v ( E p )) . keff T h j J j eff .v S h

(3)
Eq. (1) is the general form of the mass conservation
equation and is valid for incompressible as well as

compressible flows. In Eq. (1), is density, v is the

ICHVAC5-6111

velocity vector and S m is the mass added to the

continuous phase from the dispersed second phase
(e.g., due to vaporization of liquid droplets).
Eq. (2) is momentum conservation equation, where p is
the static pressure, is the stress tensor (described

below), and g and F are the gravitational body force

and external body forces (e.g., that arise from
interaction with the dispersed phase), respectively.
The stress tensor is given by

2
3

(4)

where is the molecular viscosity, I is the unit tensor

and the second term on the right hand side is the effect
of volume dilation.
In energy equation (Eq. (3)), E is total energy, k eff is
the effective conductivity ( k eff k k t , where k t is the
turbulent thermal conductivity, defined according to

the turbulence model being used), and J j is the

diffusion flux of species j. The first three terms on the
right-hand side of Eq. (3) represent energy transfer due
to conduction, species diffusion, and viscous
dissipation, respectively. S h includes the heat of
chemical reaction, and any other volumetric heat
sources. In Eq. (3), the total energy (E) is equal to
v2
E h
2
p

(5)

where h is the sensible enthalpy.

To get a correct vision of the flow field, one of the
most popular turbulent models has been selected.
However, several turbulence models are available; the
k turbulence model is chosen because of its
extensive use in various engineering applications. This
model is a semi-empirical model based on model
transport equations for the turbulence kinetic energy
( k ) and its specific dissipation rate ( ) which are
obtained from the following transport equations:

k ku i k k
t
x i
x j x j

G k Yk

(6)

u i G Y
(7)
t
x i
x j
x j
In these equations, k and represent the effective

diffusivity of k and , respectively. G k represents the

generation of turbulence kinetic energy due to mean
velocity gradients and G represents the generation of
. Yk and Y represent the dissipation of k and ,
respectively due to turbulence.
The effective diffusivities of k turbulence model
are given by

k t
(8)
k

0* Ret R k

1 Re t R k

* *

v v T .v I

where k and are the turbulent Prandtl numbers

for k and , respectively. The turbulent viscosity, t ,
is computed by combining k and as follows
k
t *
(10)

The coefficient * damps the turbulent viscosity

causing a low-Reynolds-number correction. It is given
by

(9)

(11)

where
Re t

k
, R k 6 , *0 i , i 0.072

(12)

It is noteworthy to mention that, in the high-Reynoldsnumber form of the k model, * * 1 .

In this problem, the effect of radiation heat transfer is
not negligible in comparison to convection and
conduction heat transfer due to determining role of
radiation in the floor heating systems. In this case,
Discrete Ordinate (DO) model have been chosen in
order to simulate the radiation phenomena inside the
rooms. The DO governing equation for an absorbing,
emitting and scattering grey medium can be written as
[20]:


2 T
.( I ( r , s ) s ) ( a s ) I ( r , s ) an

I ( r , s ) ( s , s )d
4 4

(13)

is the scattering coefficient, a is the

which s
absorption coefficient, n is the refractive index,

( s , s ) is the scattering phase function for the
radiation from incoming direction
and confined
to scattered direction
within the solid angle

confined within the solid angle . I ( r , s ) is the total
radiation intensity function and T is the air
temperature. In this study, the wall surfaces are
assumed opaque. Furthermore, for considering the
buoyancy effect and the relation between the flow and
energy equations, Boussinesq model is used.
Results and discussion
In this paper, the velocity and temperature distributions
in a dome shape room heated by a floor heating system
is investigated. The results are compared to the
velocity and temperature profiles of a regular cubic
room with the same heating method. The comfort
temperature (295.15 K) is determined at location 1.8m
above the floor according to ASHRER handbook as the
comfort height [21]. As the comfort condition is
achieved in the room, it means that the steady state
condition is established and the numerical simulation
has been converged. Then the dissipated heat fluxes of
all surfaces to the environment have been calculated
for both the dome and cubic shape rooms. Figure 6
shows temperature at the height of 1m from the floor
for both the experimental data and the present study.
As shown in this figure, the results are in good
agreement with each other.

ICHVAC5-6111

Figure 6. The comparison of CFD simulation and

experimental data [22, 23]

First, for validation of the code, a cubic room with the

dimension of 2.6m 1.9m 1.8m is simulated and the
results are compared with the experimental data [22,
23]. By selecting the same condition between the
simulation and the experimental setup and also
considering unsteady flow, the simulation is
performed.
Figure 7-a and 7-b illustrate the temperature profiles in
the door-mid-section and window-mid-section of dome
shape room. It can be seen from this figure that
temperature distribution in room is clearly uniform
both in door-mid-section and window-mid-section.
Furthermore, the temperature near window is relatively
low which is due to high thermal conductivity of glass
in comparison to other parts of the room such as walls
and floor.

Figure 8. Velocity contours in a) door-mid-section and b)

window-mid-section of dome shape room

Figure 9 display the velocity vectors in the midsections of the cubic room. As displayed in these
figures, two big vortices are generated near the wall in
both window mid-section and door mid-section,
expectedly [23]. The difference between the flow
patterns in the produced vortices is due to the existence
of window and door. Heat losses from window and
door disturb the Homogeneous shape of air distribution
in the room.

Figure 9. Velocity vectors for a) door-mid-section and b)

window-mid-section of cubic room
Figure 7. temperature profiles in a) door-mid-section and b)
window-mid-section of dome shape room

Velocity contours in the door-mid-section and windowmid-section of dome shape room can be seen in Figure
8-a and 8-b, respectively. As shown, there is a big
vortex approximately in the center of the window-midsection, while there are several smaller vortices in
door-mid-section due to the temperature difference
between different parts of the room. It is important that
higher temperature difference will cause higher
pressure difference and consequently bigger vortices
can be produced.

Figure 10 display the air temperature at the middle

reference line for the dome and cubic rooms and Figure
11 display the air speed at the middle reference line for
the dome and cubic rooms. As displayed in Figure 10,
in both systems, small temperature changes could be
seen along reference line due to the usage of floor
heating system [24]. However, in the dome room, at
the comfort height, the air temperature is more than in
the cubic room. Moreover, air temperature is almost
constant at the middle of the dome shape room. As
shown in Figure 11, the air speed at the comfort height
is smaller in the dome room than the cubic room. Also,
it can be concluded that, the velocity profile in dome
shape room in more uniform in comparison to cubic
room. Having a higher air temperature and a lower air

ICHVAC5-6111

speed at the comfort height is an advantage of dome

room regarding with the cubic room.

Figure 10. air temperature at middle reference line for (a) dome
room and (b) cubic room

By considering the temperature and velocity gradients

plotted in Figure 10 and 11, it can be concluded that
the dome room has better thermal comfort condition in
comparison to the regular cubic room. Furthermore, for
better understanding of heat loss rate near the critical
zones (window and door), the temperature gradients in
window and door reference lines are shown in Figure
12 and Figure 13, respectively. It can be seen from
Figure 12 that temperature gradients near window is
relatively high in comparison to door reference line.
This is due to the fact that the thermal conductivity of
window is about 6 times bigger than that for the door.
So it is expected to see more heat loss and temperature
gradients near window.

Figure 12. air temperature at window reference line for dome

room

Figure 13. air temperature at door reference line for dome room

Air temperatures for three different reference lines at

various heights are shown in Table 5. As it is clear
from this table, the room temperature at different
heights is relatively constant. The average room
temperature between the heights of 0.5 to 2.0 meter is
approximately 21.7 degree Celsius. In the height of 2.0
meter, where the window is located, the air temperature
is lower than the temperatures near the door and in the
middle of the room.
Table 5. air temperatures (oC) at different heights of dome
Figure 11. air velocity at middle reference line for (a) dome
room and (b) cubic room

Height (m)
0.5
1.0
1.5
2.0

Middle
reference line
21.46
21.711
21.756
21.841

Window
reference line
21.65
21.814
21.815
21.699

Door
reference line
21.475
21.618
21.765
21.932

ICHVAC5-6111

Table 6 and Table 7 list the total heat transfer from

each surface of the dome type room and cubic type
room, respectively. As schematized in these tables, the
total heat transfer is almost 6.5% more in dome type
room than regular cubic room. However, the area of
the floor is bigger in the dome room than the cubic
room so that the total heat transfer per surface area is
approximately 23% less in the dome type room than
the cubic room.

A comparison of energy loss from various parts of

dome and cubic room is presented in Figure 15. The
simulations show that heat loss from walls and roof of
cubic room is 43% more than energy loss from dome
surface. Moreover, it is concluded that the heat loss
from window of dome room is 3.6 times bigger than
the heat loss of cubic rooms window, while the heat
loss from door is relatively equal for both rooms.

Table 6. Total heat transfer for each surface of the dome

type room
Surface
type
Floor
Dome
surface
Window
Door
Connecting
Walls
Total

Surface area Total heat

(m2)
transfer (W)
28.23
1954.1

Total heat transfer per

surface area (W/m2)
69.23

52

-1104.2

-21.23

1.6
1.8

-712.4
-50.3

-445.52
-27.94

5.39

-87.2

-16.18

89.02

Table 7. Total heat transfer for each surface of the cubic

type room
Surface
type
Floor
Walls
Roof
Door
Window
Total

Surface area
(m2)
20.16
46.4
20.16
1.8
2.4
90.92

Total heat
transfer (W)
1827.7
-1162.3
-417.2
-52.3
-195.9
0

Total heat transfer per

surface area (W/m2)
90.66
-25.05
-20.69
-29.06
-81.65
-

The rate of thermal energy losses from various parts of

dome and cubic rooms such as walls, window and door
are graphically presented in Figure 14. It can be
concluded from this chart that most of thermal loss for
both rooms is from walls. The thermal energy loss
from dome surface is 1104.2 W which is 57% of total
dome heat transfer (1954.1 W). This portion for cubic
room is 1579.5 W for both walls and roof, which is
86% of total energy loss of cubic room (1827.7 W). So,
it can be concluded that the dome room is more
efficient in terms of energy storage. On the other hand,
the portion of energy loss from window in dome room
is surprisingly high which shows the need of
reconsidering the window material or initial
architectural position and shape of window.

(a)

(b)

Figure 14. Energy losses in various parts of (a) dome room

(total heat transfer = 1954.1 W) and (b) cubic room (total heat
transfer = 1827.7 W)

Figure 15. comparison of energy losses in dome and cubic

room from walls, window and door

Conclusion
In the present study, the CFD simulation has been done
to analyze the velocity and temperature distribution of
a doom type room in comparison with the regular cubic
room with the same volume using the Fluent software.
The floe heating system is employed in order to reach
the thermal comfort condition in the rooms. The results
show that in the dome type room, the air temperature
and speed is more suitable according to the comfort
conditions. However, the average of air speed is more
in the dome room than the cubic room. Furthermore,
the total heat transfer from the floor is 6.5% more in
the dome room than the cubic room since the area of
the dome rooms floor is too higher than the cubic
room so that the total heat transfer per surface area is
23% less in the dome room than the cubic room. In
both rooms, due to the usage of floor heating system,
the temperature gradient is low.
Acknowledgment
The authors would like to thank the Energy and
Control Center of Excellence (ECCE) at Amirkabir
University of Technology for funding the project
number 40/2033 reported in this paper.
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