Material properties, room-climate measurements and building history - an interdisciplinary project to set the conditions of restoration and re-use for the fortress of Kufstein, Tyrol, Austria

For the restoration of the historic fortress of Kufstein, the high humidity problems encountered have required special investigations : the capillary water up-take characteristics of the wall stones and identification of the ventilation deficiencies have been studied.
Results show that a controlled ventilation system may help to reduce the problems associated with humidity and condensation.

A new approach for measuring predicted mean vote (PMV) and standard effective temperature (SET)

An effective sensor for thermal comfort index is necessary for a successful comfort index-based HVAC control system. A comfort sensor with a new structure is proposed in this paper. This instrument consists of an equivalent temperature sensor, a relative humidity sensor and a temperature sensor.
Simulations show that the suggested PMV and SET sensor can have a good measurement of PMV, but for SET more research is needed.

Measurements and computations of contaminant's distribution in an office environment

The dispersion of contaminants in an office environment has been investigated. The first experiment was made in a full-scale typical office equipped with two workstations located in the middle of the room and separated by a low-level partition, and the second experiment took place in a room separated in two halves with a low level partition, with one workstation at each corner. A constant injection of tracer gas allowed the measurement of the concentration of contaminant in the chamber for both the layouts.

Marsian : Smart clothes for the study in real conditions : vital signs, emotional, sensorial and comfort responses, vigilance and tasks

MARSIAN (Modular Autonomous Recorder System for the measurement of Autonomic Nervous System activity) is an ambulatroy measurement and monitoring portable system designed for the evaluation of emotional and sensorial reactions, especially in case of thermal comfort and discomfort.
Smart textiles integrate sensors, and communication system. Its own fibers have an active role of sensing or communication, in addition with its natural mechanical role.
There are 2 kinds of smart clothes :

A moisture control strategy that backfired

The use of humidistats to control air conditioners may create mold problems mainly in houses unoccupied for an extended period. This article looks for the best approach to control humidity in empty homes during hot and humid summers. Several solutions are proposed.

Application of particle image velocimetry for the measurement of the airflow characteristics in an aircraft cabin

Velocity and turbulence intensity profiles of the airflow inside a section of a narrow body (737) aircraft cabin were measured using the particle image velocimetry (PIV) technique.In this paper the measurement technique is described and the results are presented and discussed. The purpose of this study was to provide accurate experimental data for validation of the computational fluid dynamics (CFD) codes developed for this application.

An overview of particulate matter in indoor environments : sources and effects

This paper gives an overview of sources of indoor particulate matter (PM) and its effects on occupants. Studies indicate that outdoor PM contributes to indoor PM, yet a large fractionof indoor PM is generated indoors. The ratio of indoor to outdoor PM concentrations (I/O ratio) varies substantially due to different indoor conditions and PM spatial distributions.Real-time investigation using multiple point sampling technique is needed for better understanding of PM spatial distribution.

Investigation of human thermal comfort under highly transient conditions for automative applications Part 2 : thermal sensation modeling

This paper focuses on the mathematical modeling of dynamic human thermal comfort under highly transient conditions for automotive applications. A combined physiological and psychological modeling approach was taken. First, the transient environmental and human activity data, plus the
clothing insulation data, were used as inputs to a human thermal model to determine the physiological responses for the vehicle thermal environmental conditions. Secondly, a series

Investigation of human thermal comfort under highly transient conditions for automative applications Part 1 : experimental design and human subject testing implementation

This paper focuses on the experimental research of developing models to effectively predict the dynamic whole body and local thermal comfort under highly transient conditions. Two approaches were taken subsequently. The first step was to collect environmental data with a testing vehicle under transient and non-uniform conditions. An environmental chamber was used to simulate 16 typical winter and summer conditions, which fully covered the range of thermal conditions necessary

Development of a stereoscopic particle image velocimetry system for full-scale room airflow studies, Part 2 : experimental setup

Based on the algorithms of the stereoscopic particle image velocimetry (SPIV) we have developed, two digital cameras in an angular oriented configuration were used to simultaneously record two images of the same space of interest in a full-scale room. The room was seeded with helium-filled soap bubbles of neutral buoyancy. The 5.5 3.7 2.4 m (W D H) test room, which is used to simulate and monitor indoor air environment, was constructed within a large air-conditioned room

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