Hot Water Distribution System Program Documentation and Comparison to Experimental Data

Baskin, Evelyn ; Craddick, William G ; Lenarduzzi, Roberto ; Wendt, Robert L ; Woodbury, Professor Keith A.

Oak Ridge National Laboratory

关键词: Modifications;    Computer Codes;    Mechanical Engineering;    Documentation;    Ornl;   

DOI  :  10.2172/969946
RP-ID  :  ORNL/TM-2007/170
RP-ID  :  DE-AC05-00OR22725
RP-ID  :  969946

美国|英语

来源: UNT Digital Library

【 摘 要 】

In 2003, the California Energy Commission s (CEC s) Public Interest Energy Research (PIER) program funded Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) to create a computer program to analyze hot water distribution systems for single family residences, and to perform such analyses for a selection of houses. This effort and its results were documented in a report provided to CEC in March, 2004 [1]. The principal objective of effort was to compare the water and energy wasted between various possible hot water distribution systems for various different house designs. It was presumed that water being provided to a user would be considered suitably warm when it reached 105 F. Therefore, what was needed was a tool which could compute the time it takes for water reaching the draw point to reach 105 F, and the energy wasted during this wait. The computer program used to perform the analyses was a combination of a calculational core, produced by Dr. Keith A. Woodbury, Professor of Mechanical Engineering and Director, Alabama Industrial Assessment Center, University of Alabama, and a user interface based on LabVIEW, created by Dr. Roberto Lenarduzzi of ORNL. At that time, the computer program was in a relatively rough and undocumented form adequate to perform the contracted work but not in a condition where it could be readily used by those not involved in its generation. Subsequently, the CEC provided funding through Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) to improve the program s documentation and user interface to facilitate use by others, and to compare the program s results to experimental data generated by Dr. Carl Hiller. This report describes the program and provides user guidance. It also summarizes the comparisons made to experimental data, along with options built into the program specifically to allow these comparisons. These options were necessitated by the fact that some of the experimental data required options and features not originally included in the program. A more detailed description of these program modifications along with detailed comparisons to the experimental data are provided in a report produced by Dr. Woodbury, which accompanies this report as Appendix H.