Numerical and experimental analysis of floor heat storage and release during an intermittent in-slab floor heating process

In this paper, the floor heat storage in the preheating period and the heat release in the intermittent period during an intermittent in-slab floor heating process are investigated. Numerical simulations are used to determine the effect of the design and operating parameters, i.e., the pipe spacing, the filling layer thickness and the pipe water temperature, on the floor heat storage and heat release. The relationship between the intermittent time and the preheating time is also obtained. The results show that pipe spacing has the dominant effect on the preheating time. In the intermittent period, 2 h later, the two-dimensional heat transfer process can be modeled as a one-dimensional vertical heat transfer process, and the filling layer thickness has a relatively large effect on the heat release time. The numerical simulation method is shown to be accurate to at least within 7% of the experimental measurements.