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Evaporative Cooling Interior Partition Systems

Description

Architecture and the built environment account for more than 30% of all energy consumed, with documented repercussions on climate patterns and air quality. These usage patterns are expected to grow in coming decades especially as record heat debilitates communities around the world, leading to increased adoption of mechanical air-conditioning. Despite the progress of renewable energy transitions away from burning fossil fuels, rapid adoption of AC (in countries that are fortunate enough to afford it) stands to substantially increase the energy use of building energy consumption as the technology is more widely adopted. Surprisingly, there are alternative and ancient technologies, many little known and under-used, that might offer keys to keeping cooler without using as much energy. This project seeks to explore how one of them, passive evaporative cooling might be reintroduced to help communities keep cool without using as much energy.

Documentation

At left: Ilan Farahi, Mohammed Ali, Aditi Hadkar and lead researcher Saeed Sakhdari. At right: Infrared imaging demonstrating the temperature differential between the surrounding air and the prototype.
At left: Ilan Farahi, Mohammed Ali, Aditi Hadkar and lead researcher Saeed Sakhdari. At right: Infrared imaging demonstrating the temperature differential between the surrounding air and the prototype.
At left: Early sketch rendering of a single evaporative cooling column. When spanning from floor to ceiling, water could be fed from above, possibly grey water entering from plumbing in the ceiling. Instead of being placed by a window producing heat gain, other passive techniques including shade elements (trees, awnings, shutters) could be incorporated to passive cool indoor and outdoor spaces. At right: 3d Printed Prototypes
At left: Early sketch rendering of a single evaporative cooling column. When spanning from floor to ceiling, water could be fed from above, possibly grey water entering from plumbing in the ceiling. Instead of being placed by a window producing heat gain, other passive techniques including shade elements (trees, awnings, shutters) could be incorporated to passive cool indoor and outdoor spaces. At right: 3d Printed Prototypes.

Reports

Overview: The Future Relevance of Past Technology 

Responding to mounting evidence that the planet is warming, Summers will become ever more unbearable, and in some cases life-threatening in regions with the highest temperatures. While  air-conditioning and powered mechanical cooling is effective and commonly the fallback solution  to address extreme warm temperatures, this technology consumes as much as 15% of the world’s energy budget. Meanwhile, global initiatives, including the United Nations Sustainable  Development Goals, of which the Paris Climate Treaty is a part, seeks to curb carbon emissions  to prevent terrestrial warming. In order to simultaneously reduce carbon emissions and manage  dangerous temperatures, new design approaches are sorely warranted. The evaporative cooling  partitions project is an exploration of an ancient and passive cooling method which was  developed in Asia and the Middle East, hundreds if not, thousands of years ago to withstand and  manage heat. The goal of this exploration is to uncover and substantiate whether such a  technology could be meaningfully reintroduced into modern building practices today. 

This project sent out this fall to research past technologies and understand the thermodynamics  of passive evaporative cooling. With a team spanning architecture, building construction and  industrial design (across two colleges, CAAD and CoE) we embarked on the goal to complete a  proof of concept prototype by December 2023. During this time we focused on our efforts on  form and texture development of the ceramic volumes, which are essential to this evaporative  cooling system. The main priority of the shape development has been to one increase the surface  area of these partition columns, and to promote the ability of cross ventilation to pass through  them. After a deep team effort of ideation, we used a ceramic. 3-D printer to develop three  distinct concept prototypes to achieve this end. Further, we tested their efficacy by filling them  with sand and water, and then measured the temperature differential between the surrounding  air, and the ceramic cooling modules, using infrared videography equipment.

Spring 2024 Plan 

At present, we have deduced that a more open volume would be more successful at cooling the  surrounding air temperature. Next semester, we will develop this concept in the following ways. Depending on the ability to reformulate the team. Stefan Al is pursuing a new opportunity but  will remain as an adjunct at VT. Saeed Sakhdari graduates and is moving to Chicago. 

  1. optimize the surface texture of the ceramic module using rhino, grasshopper
  2. optimize the porosity of the clay material which we use 
  3. build a larger scale prototype, which can be tested in a humidity chamber to further validate  its performance 
  4. exhibit the larger evaporative cooling partition piece with a live infrared video camera to  demonstrate how it works. Show with supporting process and historical precedent  documentation.

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