New method of integrating experiment for maintaining low indoor temperature into numerical modelling: A feasibility demonstration in reduced-scale building model.

Reduced-scale building models have been widely used in experiments because of their convenience and flexibility. However, it is difficult to reduce its indoor temperature and maintain the low temperature at low cost. There is also a lack of accurate numerical modelling and verification of the indoor temperature control process in this model. For this purpose, a reduced-scale test chamber was constructed that can be used to conduct experiments in real outdoor environmental conditions. Lower the indoor air temperature by placing ice in the test chamber and maintain it within the range of 10–15 °C, with a temperature difference of approximately 20 °C from the outdoor air temperature. In addition, the temperature control process in experiment was modelled in detail. The experimental values were compared with the simulated values, and the coefficient of variation of the root mean square error between the two is in the range of 3.64–7.71%. This work integrates experiments into numerical modelling, which not only cross-validates the reliability of each other, but also the verified model can be used for subsequent simulation analysis, including in-depth exploration of key factors affecting experimental results, and calculation of important results that are difficult to measure directly in experiments. • New method is proposed to reduce indoor temperature in reduced-scale model. • Temperature difference between indoor and outdoor environments is approximately 20 °C. • Integrating experiments into numerical modelling and verifying reliability of the two. • The verified model can be used to further analyse key factors affecting the results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]