thermal mass

Graduate Team Completes Construction and Publishes Paper!

The Thermal Mass and Buoyancy Ventilation Research Project (TMBV) graduate students have concluded their work and time in Newbern, AL. In their wake, they leave a published, peer-reviewed paper and two research-ready buildings.

In the course of their graduate year, the TMBV project dove deep into the results of their initial small-scale experiments, culminating in a research paper published in the Journal of Physics: Conference Series as a part of the 2021 CISBAT Hybrid Scientific Conference. At the same time, the team designed and constructed two Test Buildings. The cooling and ventilation effects spurred by the optimized thermal mass will be studied throughout the next year, providing ground truth data for the system at a building scale.

The paper: A synopsis

The open-access research paper entitled, “Synchronized coupling of thermal mass and buoyancy ventilation: wood versus concrete” was published in November 2020 in the Journal of Physics Conference: Series. This was an effort involving the entire TMBV research team including Salmaan Craig, Remy Fortin, Sebastien Asselin, Kiel Moe, David Kennedy, and Andrew Freear. The paper describes small-scale experiments that test the accuracy of sizing parameters which suggest how to optimize the coupling of an internal thermal mass—which allows a building to store heat and thereby avoid major temperature fluctuations—with natural ventilation cycles, regardless of the material or the scale of the building. The results suggest the sizing parameters may be valid for early-stage design. They also show that biomaterials, such as wood, can perform as well as conventional thermal mass materials, such as concrete.

Why is this important? Typical, mechanical thermal comfort systems pump greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, raising the temperature even more. They also cannot perform in power outages during weather events caused by the ongoing climate crisis. Therefore, using regenerative materials, such as wood, to mitigate rising temperatures without reliance on the power grid suggests sustainable thermal comfort with less burden on the environment. That is an ongoing aim of the TMBV Research Project, and these initial results are an encouraging step. Before such lofty goals can be reached, the TMBV Test Buildings will provide more insight into the capabilities of the system.

The buildings: A summary

As stated above, the TMBV Test Buildings examine the coupling of thermal mass and buoyancy ventilation as a reliable thermal comfort system at the building scale. Currently, the buildings are set up for these first large-scale experiments and will later be fitted out for housing. The buildings are designed to be flexible spaces for ongoing experiments as well as dwellings for 3rd-year students. Therefore, the buildings balance valid experimental conditions, the realities of construction, and the basic needs of college students. One Test Building is powered by a plywood internal thermal mass and the other by concrete. Both buildings are designed to achieve the same performance parameters for temperature dampening and ventilation rate despite their material differences—i.e., the surface area and thickness of the material.

The buildings are the first Rural Studio buildings constructed primarily out of Structurally Insulated Panels (SIPs). Towering over the Supershed on Morrisette Campus they hover 8′ off the ground. Underneath the buildings is a gathering space nicknamed the “Cooling Porch.” During the day it is meant to collect cool air flowing out of the buildings, providing a place to enjoy the systems en masse. Air travels here through the extended chimneys, which increase ventilation speed and denote the building’s function.

With such tight buildings, dependent on accuracy, the team showed out on all the details. From three-week welding sessions to mapping out patterns of old sidewalk scrap to calculating the discharge coefficient of rooftop vent caps, this team investigated every inch. Feel free to peruse the TMBV blog to see the process, but for now here are the results.

The team: An abridgement

What a journey! These kids, ready to learn how to craft a beautiful building, were not expecting a crash course in thermodynamics, experimental design, and scientific discourse. It was an incredible opportunity to do both. Blending design, construction, and scientific rigor was an extremely unique and fulfilling educational experience. And the TMBV team sharing that experience across North America!

Rowe, the TMBV team’s certified best and most patient construction instructor, has moved to Bozeman, Montana, to join Love | Schack Architecture.

Jeff, a master of power tools and 3D modeling, is taking time to further his coding and woodworking skills.

Cory, a most relaxed, renaissance man, is enjoying his stint at the Ghost Residency with MacKay-Lyons Sweetapple Architects Limited, in Lunenburg, Nova Scotia.

Livia, the heart and volume of the operation, has settled in Austin, Texas, working with Rural Studio Alums at Thoughtbarn.

A huge thank you to the faculty and staff of Auburn University Rural Studio, the teams’ student colleagues, the project consultants (including Joe Farruggia!), the donors and teachers of Turnipseed International, and “Crane” Shane of Sweetwater Construction LLC for your time, knowledge, and support. Most obviously and ardently, thank you to the TMBV research conglomerate Salmaan Craig, Andrew Freear, Steve Long, David Kennedy, Kiel Moe, Sebastien Asselin, and Remy Fortin for the stellar work and dedication. It took a village!

This lot loves Rural Studio and all of its people. Hope to see y’all soon.

Bit by bit, day by day

Everything is officially clad! The plywood is cut! The benches are designed! The Cooling Porch is secured! The wiring is installed! The door is installed!

Rowe and Jeff are ticking big items off the Thermal Mass and Buoyancy Ventilation Research Project checklist. Let’s take a look at what the graduate research team has completed in the last month.

Clad

The Cooling Porch ceiling and Bottom Chimneys were clad last as they did not need the articulating man lift to reach. Now that the entire Test Building is clad with bleach-stained cypress, their form reads less like floating boxes and more like floating funnels. While the main function of the chimneys is to increase overall stack height and therefore air velocity within the system, they also signal movement to onlookers. Two wood-clad heat silos at your service!

Cut

Another TMBV jig on the books, this one helps break down large pieces of plywood with precise cuts. Jeff and Rowe designed and built the jig to make all the cuts necessary for creating the plywood thermal mass panels. Like the concrete panels, the plywood conforms to the slanted ceiling of the Test Building. There is also substantially more plywood panels as they cover the walls, floor, and ceiling of the interior.

Secured

Next up, the Cooling Porch finishing touches. Steel plates for future benches were installed in the construction of the Cooling Porch walls. However, the bench material was undecided. The team chose to use the same metal grate used on the stairs and walkway for these breezy benches. Over the next couple of weeks, the benches will be installed and reinforced with a bracket.

Last up for the Cooling Porch, a little tripping hazard prevention. The top course of the Cooling Porch walls were dry-stacked but untethered to the ground. To keep the course in place, the team used Tap Con masonry screws and small metal brackets to link the top course with the rest of the wall.

Powered

As future dwellings and experiments, the Test Buildings need power for people and sensors. The buildings are wired through chases in the SIP, accessible from floor outlets to keep the walls clear.

Last on our list of tasks completed is the installation of the doors! The test fit showed a bit more blocking needed, but the end result looks great!

Cladding, Concrete, Continuing

The Thermal Mass and Buoyancy Ventilation Team’s days of pouring concrete and manning the man lift are over. All of the internal thermal mass concrete panels have been poured, cured, and installed in the Concrete Test Building. Another milestone hit is the completion of the exterior cladding (minus the Cooling Porch ceiling). The team waved goodbye to both the articulating man lift, generously donated to the project by Sunbelt Rentals, and to team member Livia. She journeyed to Austin, TX, to work for Rural Studio Alum Lucy Begg and Robert Gay at their firm, Thoughtbarn. Good luck Liv!

Let’s check out the progress!

Cladding Completion

The team met their goal of finishing all cladding which required the articulating man lift by the end of October. The bleach-stained cypress covers all exterior surfaces including the Chimneys. The team left one side of the cladding longer than necessary. Then they came back with a skill saw and a guide to give one clean cut. This ensured that all corner reveals were exactly 1/2 inch wide.

Interior Optimized

Over 70 1-1/8 inch concrete panels now line the walls of the Concrete Test Building. The team crafted formwork and processes for pouring, transporting, and installing each panel. Behind the panels is 1/2 inch rigid insulation which creates a thermal break from the OSB sheathing during the testing phase. For roughly the next year, the Test Buildings will be unoccupied as temperature and ventilation measurements are continuously recorded. Afterward, the Test Buildings will be prepared for either more experiments or occupation by 3rd-year students living on Morrisette Campus. Check out the nearly complete Concrete Test Building below! Only some buffing and shining to go!

Bonus!

Also in the works as of late is a vent cap for the bottom chimney opening within the Test Buildings. This cap seals the lower ventilation opening shut during winter occupation. Seen below is Rowe welding a frame for the hatch!

Don’t miss Jeff and Rowe’s wonderful Halloween Review costumes. Jeff as his prized Milwaulkee leaf blower and Rowe, a leaf, one of many victims. Keep checking back in as the Test Buildings near completion!

It’s a Cover-Up: Cladding the Interior and Exterior

History professor Dick Hudgen’s TMBV Test Buildings Sketch!

Right now the Thermal Mass and Buoyancy Ventilation team is all about concrete and cypress. They’ve been busy creating and installing the shiplap jointed, 1-1/8″ thick concrete internal thermal mass panels. These panels line the walls of one of the Test Buildings and create the designed cooling and ventilation effects. With Jeff at the helm of formwork building, they’ve completed three out of four panel pouring phases. The panel-making process is separated into phases, so most of the formwork can be used more than once, eliminating waste. Formwork, or molds, are fabricated with precision in the woodshop. The team installed phase 1 before Cory began his journey to Nova Scotia to participate in a residency with McKay-Lions Sweetapple Architects Ltd. Congratulations Cory, we miss you already!

Also on the agenda as of late; exterior finishes! With weather-proofing complete, the team has taken to installing the cladding part of the ventilated cladding system. This system is completed with 8″ and 6″ cypress boards which are protected with Cabot® Bleaching Stain. The stain also helps the wood age consistently in the sun. With Livia cutting and Jeff and Rowe installing, the cypress siding is flying up!

Unseen are the myriad of other little things the team is finishing up such as electrical and grading. The team is keeping the momentum up so stay tuned to see the buildings fully wrapped!

Panel Production

Panel pouring process: Mix concrete, fill form, transfer to vibrating table, trowel, and finish!

Cypress Siding

Be Groovy or Leave, Concrete!

“Either be groovy or leave, man!” – Bob Dylan

The TMBV team attempts a vertical concrete panel pour

Live from Neck Down week, it’s the Thermal Mass and Buoyancy Ventilation Research Project team! From 8:00 AM to 3:00 PM last week, the 3rd-years, 5th-years, and graduates students have bonded over manual labor and project maintenance. This is the age-old tradition of Neck Down week, the start of each semester in which all year levels put their projects aside to spruce up Rural Studio’s campus and help out at ongoing and completed projects. The TMBVRP team snuck in some more concrete panel test pours in the after hours. Let’s see how they did it!

Panel Proposals

Before we dive into construction, it’s important to highlight what is different about these concrete panels. In contrast to the team’s last test pours these panels are smaller with tongue and groove edges. We will dive deeper into the tongues and grooves later. As seen above in the unfolded wall elevations above, the team experimented with different sizes and arrangements of panels. The main difference in the schemes where whether the running bond pattern stacked vertically or horizontally. The teams chose to test pour the more rectangular panels from both the vertical and horizontal running bond options.

Panel Preparations

For both chosen designs, the team planned to test making the most commonly recurring panel and the trickiest panel. Therefore, for each option the forwork for a typical rectangular panel and the more triangular panel, created by the sloping roof, was designed. However, a certain, not-Livia team member created the “construction” drawings seen above months before actual construction. The team has made significant leaps and bounds in construction drawing etiquette since. There was also much to the tongue and groove formwork that had not been fully fleshed out. So, as seen in the marked-up construction drawing above, much was decided on the fly. It was a very design-build experience.

Next, the team used their new tongue and groove router bits. Tongue and groove is a system of joining adjacent panels by means of interlocking ridges and grooves down their sides. Seen above are the first tests of the router bits to create the tongue edges for the panel formwork. For the formwork, the tongues and grooves were routed out of PVC board. PVC board will not chemically bond with the poured concrete, therefore, creating a successful cast. Connecting the concrete panels to one another using the joining system will improve their strength. The panels will act more as one structurally, but also thermally making a more effective thermal mass.

Horizontal Panel Pour

Along with testing the tongue and grooved edges, the team attempted two different pouring strategies; horizontal and vertical. Seen below is the typical, horizontal panel pour method. The team is pretty well-versed in this recipe. After pouring the panels, the team will let them cure for about a week. Onwards to the vertical pour!

Vertical Panel Pour

The vertical concrete formwork meant to create two perfect panel faces and ease panel transportation. However, you guessed it, the vertical pour was quite difficult. First, vertical formwork requires more pieces that need to fit together more precisely. You are in a sense making a very precise sandwich that leaks Mayonaise everywhere if you don’t get it right. Second, getting the masonry anchors to stay in place and attach through both large faces required a special bolting jig. Another new piece to make. Third, to keep the formwork upright required leveling and sawhorse structure. Fourth and finally, the team built a funnel to transfer the concrete through the 1-1/8″ formwork opening. And repeat for 60 plus panels!

While the smaller, triangular vertical pour went fine enough, the large rectangular panel busted open. As you can see above the triangular panel had little leakage out of the masonry anchor attachment areas. The rectangular panel however suffered catastrophic failures in this area. For now, the team awaits the curing process to see the results. However, based on these vertical tests they aren’t sure the reward will be worth the hassle. But, hey, where else in the world do you get to test pouring concrete panels vertically than in the Rural Studio graduate program? It’s always worth the hassle.

The Wood Rack

Last, but far from least, the team can’t wait to show off their new wood racks. Because the Fabrication Pavilion is their construction headquarters, the team was in charge of cleaning it up as a Neck Down week task. They are stupidly proud of these wood racks they built to take all their lumber vertical and clear space for more activities! Please admire them!

Copper has joined to say thanks for tuning in! Stop by next week to see how the panel pours and tongue and grooving worked out for the Thermal Mass and Buoyancy Ventilation Research Project Team!