Influence of the Shade from Other Occupants on the Angle Factor between a Human Body and Radiant Surface in Buildings

In a real room with radiant surfaces for heating or cooling occupants, the radiant heat transfer between a certain human body and radiant surfaces is largely affected by other indoor objects such as other occupants. Nonetheless, this point is usually ignored in current studies. This study aims to quantify the influence of the shade from other indoor objects on the angle factor between a human body and radiant surfaces. First, a simplified 3-D model of standing human body was established on the basis of the Chinese adult human body size. ANSYS Fluent was used for calculating angle factor values between a human body and radiant surface in a room with a size of 5 m × 5 m × 5 m (length × width × height). The concept of relative angle factors was proposed and a first-order exponential correlation was found between the position and the relative angle factor. In the non-shaded condition, as the human body had larger horizontal distances or smaller vertical distances, the decrease in both angle factors and relative angle factors became faster. In the shaded condition, the angle factors decreased when the horizontal position of the shade human body closed to the center line of the radiant surface or the vertical position of the shade closed to the edge of the radiant solid angle.