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 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 using Modelit or sketch up?

Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

Rebecca Butler
LEED AP
Enermodal Engineering
(303) 861-2070