Experimental study of space cooling using ceiling panels equipped with capillary mats

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the thermal performances and the effect on the thermal comfort of a cooling ceiling installed in an experimental test room called Minibat. With a 9.6m2 surface and controlling the temperatures on all the exterior walls of the cell, Minibat was the perfect environment for this experimental study. The studied ceiling panels were equipped with capillary mats using polypropylene as material. During the experiment we have analyzed different cases where the ceiling surface temperature varied between 15C and 19C. Different parameters like air temperature, humidity or surface temperature were measured during the experiment. To evaluate the thermal comfort we have calculated the PMV value for different chilled ceiling surface temperatures. The results indicate that the cooling ceiling could assure the indoor thermal comfort and with good thermal performances in terms of specific cooling rate or vertical temperature asymmetry.