I have a question regarding the capabilities of IES VE and its CFD package
and I was hoping someone might have some experience or insight to help get
me started on the following problem. We have a concept cooling design which
includes a radiant hollow core concrete ceiling through which evaporatively
cooled air is routed. The air which is routed through the radiant ceiling
comes from a central evaporative cooler and is then exhausted at the
exterior of each room after it has passed through the airflow passages in
the ceiling. Just to be clear, this is not a typical radiant system in that
electricity is being used to cool the slab but instead evaporatively cooled
outdoor air is being used in its place. We also want to couple these
effects with natural ventilation which occurs because of the use of operable
windows.

We are trying to analyze the effects of these techniques in a cooling season
in Colorado (hence the benefit of the evaporative cooler). We have
conducted rough calculations of the benefits of using such a system using
standard ASHRAE energy transfer techniques and we want to verify our
results. Have you ever heard of this type of system being modeled in IES VE
and/or is it capable of modeling such a system? Is there a way to modify
the "radiant ceiling" option in IES to take into account the saving which
would occur by using evaporatively cooled air in the place of electricity?
If not, is there a way to manually create such a system from the ground up?

Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

Rebecca Butler