A Simplified Method for Stationary Heat Transfer of a Hollow Core Concrete Slab Used for TABS

Thermally activated building systems (TABS) have been an energy efficient way to improve the indoor thermal comfort. Due to the complicated structure, heat transfer prediction for a hollow core concrete used for TABS is difficult. This paper proposes a simplified method using equivalent thermal resistance for the stationary heat transfer of this kind of system. Numerical simulations are carried out to validate this method, and this method shows very small deviations from the numerical simulations. Meanwhile, this method is used to investigate the influence of the thickness of insulation on the heat transfer. The insulation with a thickness of more than 0.06 m can keep over 95 % of the heat transferred from the lower surface, which is beneficial to the radiant ceiling cooling. Finally, this method is extended to involve the effect of the pipe, and the numerical comparison results show that this method can accurately predict the effect of the pipe.