Author(s)

K. M. Odunfa¹, T. O. Arowona¹, V. O. Odunfa²

¹Mechanical Engineering Department, University of Ibadan, Ibadan, Nigeria.
²Estate Management Department, The Polytechnic, Ibadan, Ibadan, Nigeria.

Air conditioning design has become an interesting aspect of human life with the aim of seeking environmental comfort for indoor spaces. Analytical work involves in the design of air-conditioning system is often time consuming and laborious. This work therefore aims at developing a visual interactive computer package for the design of air conditioning system using the international conference centre, University of Ibadan, Nigeria as a case study. Procedures for calculating heat gain through various building components were discussed in detail. Cooling load analysis was carried out using standard cooling load equations obtained from the American Society of Heating, Refrigeration and Air conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE) handbook. A computer program was developed using java programming language to compute the total cooling load in the building. The result from the computer program was obtained within a very short period of time when compared with that of the manual one. The cooling load of the building obtained was 3,194,414 btu/hr; a visual interactive computer package for the design of air conditioning system has been developed and tested positively; hence can be used to design air conditioning system for any building.

Environmental Comfort, Programming Language, Air Conditioning Design

Odunfa, K. , Arowona, T. and Odunfa, V. (2018) Visual Interactive Computer Package for Air Conditioning System Design: Case of the International Conference Centre, University of Ibadan, Nigeria. Journal of Building Construction and Planning Research, 6, 317-330. doi: 10.4236/jbcpr.2018.64021.