Currently in Poland, the construction of biogas plants is growing as alternative energy sources. Often, technical solutions for design and building of biogas plants are transferred to Poland from countries in which these technologies are developed without taking into account the specific climatic...

This paper presents research on humidity in a passenger car cabin with the use of supply ventilation without cooling the air. Based on the tests carried out and the humidity balance in the car, a model was developed for changing the humidity in the passenger car cabin as a function of time. The study of thermohumid conditions was carried out in two passenger cars. During the tests, the heating and cooling functions were turned off. The relative humidity and temperature were measured outside the car before and after driving the car and in the supply air duct and inside the passenger car cabin while driving the car. The tests were carried out for an average temperature range from 20 to 42.9 °C. In order to develop a model of humidity changes as a function of time, a humidity balance was prepared. Human-generated humidity in the car cabin depends mainly on the temperature inside the car and the age of the person and can range from 20 to 180 g/(h × person) for an adult in the temperature range of 20–43 °C, while for a child under six years old the humidity ranges from 8 to 19.5 g/(h × person) in the temperature range 22–34 °C. A formula of humidity generated by an adult and a child aged six years old was obtained as a function of temperature inside a passenger car. Based on the experimental research and the model developed, the humidity generated by a single adult and a six-year-old child in the car was determined. The developed model can be used in the automatic airflow adjustment systems in passenger cars.

Our paper presents a simplified model of carbon dioxide concentrations in classrooms equipped with stack ventilation systems, based on experimental research. The test was conducted in six classrooms in the building of the Faculty of Civil and Environmental Engineering of Białystok University of Technology in northeastern Poland. The research included both classrooms that were not mechanically ventilated and classrooms that were ventilated by opening the windows during breaks between classes. In all classrooms, a linear increase in the concentration of carbon dioxide during the classes was observed. The increase of the concentration of carbon dioxide in spaces of this type depends mostly on the volume of and the number of persons present in the space.

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effect of the viscous dissipation of laminar flow through a straight regular polygonal duct on forced convection with constant axial wall heat flux with constant peripheral wall temperature using the boundary element method (BEM). Design/methodology/approach: Both the wall heating case and the wall cooling case are considered. Applying the velocity profile obtained for the duct laminar flow and the energy equation with the viscous dissipation term is solved exactly for the constant wall heat flux using the BEM. The numerical values are obtained by means of a computer program, written by the authors in Fortran. The results of the BEM approach are verified by analytic models. Nusselt numbers are obtained for flows with a different number of sides of a regular polygonal duct and Brinkman numbers. Findings: When the difference in temperature between the wall temperature and the fluid bulk temperature changes the sign, then the functions of the Nusselt number with the Brinkman number generated some singularities (Br_qLs). For the Brinkman number referring to the total wall linear power, with the increasing value of the number of sides of a regular polygonal duct, Br_qLs decreases in the range of 3 ≤ n < ∞. If the Br_qL < Br_qLs, it is possible to note that, in general, the Nusselt number is higher for cross-sections having a lower value of the number of sides of a regular polygonal duct. For Br_qL > Br_qLs, this rule is reversed. Originality/value: This paper illustrates the effects of viscous dissipation on laminar forced convective flow in regular polygon ducts with a different number n of sides. A compact relationship for the Nusselt number vs the Brinkman number referring to the temperature difference between the wall temperature and the fluid bulk temperature and the Brinkman number, which is based on the total wall linear power, have been proposed.

This paper presents the analysis of the heat conduction of pre-insulated double ducts and the optimization of the shape of thermal insulation by applying an elliptical shape. The shape of the cross-section of the thermal insulation is significantly affected by the thermal efficiency of double pre-insulated networks. The thickness of the insulation from the external side of the supply and return pipes affects the heat losses of the double pre-insulated pipes, while the distance between the supply and return pipes influences the heat flux exchanged between these ducts. An assumed elliptical shape with a ratio of the major axis to the minor half axis of an ellipse equaling 1.93 was compared to thermal circular insulation with the same cross-sectional area. All calculations were made using the boundary element method (BEM) using a proprietary computer program written in Fortran as part of the VIPSKILLS project.

The paper presents an analysis of heat loss and reductions of annual emissions of air pollutants of a quadruple pre-insulated heating network by comparing this solution with the existing pre-insulated network consisting of four pre-insulated single pipes and the variant consisting of two twin pipe pre-insulated. For calculations, an existing heating network located in central Poland was adopted, where heat is transported for heating purposes of buildings and domestic hot water with circulation of domestic hot water through four separate pre-insulated underground pipes. The idea of the construction of four pre-insulated pipes presented in the paper consists in the location of four steel pipes in a common round thermal insulation, which perform the role of heat transport for heating purposes in multi-family buildings (supply and return) and two pipes transporting hot water (a pipe with domestic hot water with circulation). In Poland, heating pipes used in multi-family housing have a larger diameter compared to domestic hot water pipes, which is why standard twin pipe heating pipes have been used in the construction of four pre-insulated networks, in which the domestic hot water pipe has been added to the thermal insulation and circulation of domestic hot water. In order to determine heat losses, a simplified two-dimensional model of conductive heat transfer was developed using Fortran to create a computer program. The results of numerical simulations show that the use of twin pipes for the construction of pre-insulated quadruple networks has contributed to a significant reduction in heat loss in relation to the existing single pre-insulated network (up to 57.1%), while reducing the thermal insulation field of the cross-section of the pre-insulated pipe by 21.4%.