Numerical Investigation on Ventilation Strategy for Laboratories: A Novel Approach to Control Thermal Comfort Using Cooling Panels

A novel ventilation system which introduces bench exhausts and radiant cooling panels is proposed. The benefits of using bench exhausts and radiant cooling panel system in removing heat from equipment intensive laboratory are quantitatively evaluated using CFD simulations. This study resulted in a recommendation for a ventilation strategy using a combination of ceiling exhausts, bench exhausts and ceiling radiant cooling panels that appears to give the best thermal condition and energy saving in the laboratory. The system offers the potential for application in new and existing research laboratories where a large portion of the space cooling load in a laboratory is a result of the heat produced by the research equipment on the bench