Influence of the Arrangement of Multiple Radiant Ceiling Panels on the Radiant Temperature Field

The use of radiant systems for cooling purposes in buildings is attracting considerable attention, particularly for Suspended Radiant Ceiling Panels (SRCPs). However, the arrangement of the panels on the ceiling and the influence on radiative heat transfer is rarely discussed in the literature. The objective of this paper is to provide a numerical study of the radiative heat transfer at room scale when the size and the number of SRCPs varies. It has been observed that the use of a single large panel would result in a low average temperature, which is desirable, but also in poor uniformity of the temperature field. Here, a genetic algorithm is proposed and tuned to determine the positions of multiple SRCPs that would improve uniformity. It is shown that much better uniformity can be obtained, with only a moderate increase in the average temperature, for 10 panels or more. The differences between the use of a single large panel and multiple panels is noteworthy when SRCPs cover from 10 to 70% of the ceiling area.