Page 8 - Climate Control News May 2022

News
Women are an untapped resource in HVACR.
Cooling network goes global
Although women make up half of the world’s population, they are significantly and visibly un- der-represented in HVACR.
INWIC seeks to reverse that trend by promot- ing women’s engagement in HVACR.
However, more cooperation and information exchange at the global level is needed to link these individual efforts and make them even more meaningful and impactful, especially in developing countries.
Head of UNEP OzonAction, James Curlin, said the cooling sector is critical for achieving envi- ronmental objectives including the continued success of the Montreal Protocol and for ad- dressing climate change.
“If they are to meet their compliance obliga- tions, countries need a strong, vibrant, and inclu- sive cooling sector,” Curlin said.
“Women represent a tremendous, largely un- tapped source of innovation and skills for this sector, and they need to be actively engaged if we are to solve the great environmental challenges of our time. INWIC seeks to do just that.”
TO INCREASE THE number of women working in HVACR, a new initiative has been launched called the International Network for Women in Cooling (INWIC).
It will promote career opportunities, and in- crease overall participation in the sector, which includes refrigeration, air-conditioning, and heat pumps (RACHP).
INWIC is led by the World Refrigeration Day (WRD) secretariat and the United Nations Envi- ronment Programme (UNEP) OzonAction.
They have partnered with groups around the globe including the Australian Institute of Refrig- eration, Air Conditioning and Heating (AIRAH) and industry bodies in Europe, China, Latin America, India, Japan, Africa and North America.
Airflow control technology to maximise comfort
MITSUBISHI ELECTRIC CORPORATION
has developed a new airflow-control technology that both visualises and analyses airflow from air-conditioning systems as well as temperature distribution for optimized room-wide comfort.
The technology predicts airflows and temper- atures, which vary according to the room shape and air-conditioning system layout, to deter- mine how to minimise uneven temperatures and discomfort due to excessively strong airflow.
Mitsubishi Electric will use its new solution to advise building owners and designers on how to enhance indoor layouts for increased comfort.
In recent years, due to the impact of COVID-19 and other factors, there has been an increasing emphasis on the healthfulness and comfort of in- door spaces, including ventilation.
However, it has been difficult to use built-in sensors of A/C units to collect data on airflow due to great variations in room and air-condi- tioning system layouts.
Details of the new technology were announced last month at the 55th Japanese Joint Conference on Air-conditioning and Refrigeration, which was held at the Etchujima Campus of Tokyo Uni- versity of Marine Science and Technology.
A key feature of the new technology is compu- tational fluid dynamics (CFD) which is used to predict airflow and temperature distribution in out-of-the-way places, such as under desks or be- hind partitions, or due to other A/C units nearby.
Using airflow and temperature distribution as comfort indices, ideal airflow angles and vol- umes are automatically determined and con- trolled for optimized room-wide comfort.
Mitsubishi Electric's new technology gener- ates three-dimensional models using informa- tion on room and air-conditioning system lay- outs,anditalsopredictsairflowandtemperature distribution using CFD analysis to test various conditions, including airflow angles/volumes and heat levels.
The technology predicts airflow and temperature distribution.
Tokyo University of Marine Science and Technology.
From CFD analysis results, the technology se- lects the most ideal conditions and controls the A/C system's actual operation.
Data required for airflow analysis, such as the locations of walls, floors, columns and A/C equipment, is extracted from building-informa- tion modelling (BIM) data to generate three-di- mensional models.
Airflow analysis is performed by virtually testing models incorporating different furniture, indoor units and ventilation system layouts to visualize airflow, temperature-distribution and ventilation effects.
Room, indoor units and ventilation system lay- outs can be changed easily on-screen and the mod- el numbers of specific Mitsubishi Electric A/C sys- tems can be entered from a database. Results of different patterns can be compared using airflow animations and color-coded diagrams* of temper- ature contours, CO2 concentration levels and times required for air from vents to reach specific areas.
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