Back to main page

2000
Week 36
Week 37
Week 38
Week 39
Week 40
Week 41
Week 42
Week 43
Week 44
Week 45
Week 46
Week 47
Week 48
Week 49
Week 50
2001
Week 2
Week 3
Week 4
Week 5
Week 6
Week 7
Week 8
Week 9
Week 10
Week 11
Week 12
Week 13
Weeks 14-20

Back to main page

Realised that the PE plate expanded considerably when heated, and thus was not perfectly suitable. There was no smell from it, though.

Decided to try the laminate supplied by Krydsfinér-centralen, and drove to Rødovre to get it. Built the panel using the laminate, and this time we also made a wooden frame, and used mineral wool as the insulation material, since the styrofoam was evaporating slowly. This construction only expanded a little and we realised that there was practically no smell being emitted from the surface. The rear side was different; a slight but noticeable smell was emitted. It was decided to try sealing the panel, by gluing plastic elbows to the edges, or by using tape.

Attended lecture given by Edward Arens (University of California, Berkeley) who is head of the Environmental Design department at the university. For the past 20-30 years he has been working within the field of environmental quality and energy efficiency. He is currently running a project concerning simulation of human comfort at exposures to outdoor and indoor environments; at the moment, the model is used for thermal comfort simulation in cars. The program "Poser" uses a model of a human being that is split into 16 parts. However, a much finer subdivision is possible. The program is very relevant for our project because it is able to calculate the skin temperature by calculating the radiant view factors from each single surface of the body. The results are displayed using a visually pleasing 3D image. Edward Arens was willing to help us simulate the thermal conditions for our work station set-up, which is very kind of him and valuable to our project.

We prepared a description of the set-up, which Jørn sent to Charlie Huizinger, the person doing most of the work on the model at Berkeley. He responded quickly and seemed eager to help.

We discussed whether an interior window of plexi glass was really needed, as the inner surface temperature of the existing glass might not get unacceptably low. Calculations indicated that the window surface temperature would be around 14 ° C, at an outdoor temperature of 5 ° C.

We used the CFD program Fluent in order to evaluate the temperature field around a seated person at a workstation. Work will continue on this task.

We moved the prototype set-up from the office next door, to the field lab which Thomas left this week.