Influence of ventilation system on the performance of cooling ceilings: application to chilled beams.

Cooling ceiling systems are controlling only the sensible heat balance of the rooms; they are always combined with a ventilation system foreseen to control indoor humidity and to cover air renewal requirements. Between the types of cooling ceiling in use, the passive chilled beams seem to be the most sensitive to ventilation air influence. Jn most of the cases, the ventilation outlets are located in the ceiling void, and consequently this generates a penalty on the beam cooling power. The work presented aims at estimating this influence, through results issued from experimental studies. The values obtained show that in usual cases, the beam cooling power can decrease down to 20-25% from its nominal value. Moreover, by using simple modeling assumptions, one should be able to make a preliminary evaluation of this effect. The results of this study are regarded as helpful for design of cooling systems.