wood

In the field trip

February 5, 2020

The Thermal Mass and Buoyancy Ventilation Research Project Team got out of Newbern last week and into the field, sawmill, and lab!

  • Charlie’s Field
  • Auburn University’s Lab

The first field trip of last week was to Charlie’s sawmill. Charlie is a retired engineer, woodworker, and long time friend of Rural Studio, having helped with the Greensboro Animal Shelter. The team met Charlie at the Animal Shelter during neckdown week, where he was leading the project to revamp the kennels.

Charlie has a “hobby mill” he has been building up over the past years. He works mainly with salvaged wood and timbers making furniture and folk art. After the team got a tour of Charlie’s sawmill, he treated them to lunch and a brief presentation on wood. Even more than lunch, Charlie has offered the team use of his sawmill. Charlie has a passion for helping others and great deal of building knowledge, the team feels very lucky to have met him! Thank you Charlie!

  • remember our concrete samples?
  • this is them now.

Next, the TMBVRP team met up with Professor David Kennedy in the material testing lab at Auburn University’s College of Mechanical Engineering to test the thermal properties of their concrete samples. These samples were made using three different concrete mixtures, high finish, fiber-reinforced and 100% Portland cement. The objective was to find the exact heat capacity, thermal conductivity, and effusivity of each mixture. Knowing the specific thermal properties will help eliminate variables in the math when evaluating how the Optimal Tuning Theory is working.

  • label
  • measure
  • weigh
  • repeat

David gave the students a crash course in scientific testing procedure. When conducting such tests, everything needs to be documented. The samples were marked, 10 of each mixture, measured for thickness and diameter, and weighed. The specific volume and density were then calculated for each sample before testing. The sample was again weighed after the test had run. Everything needs to be documented!

  • concrete sample in the testing equipment
  • David Kennedy in a green sweater

Next, the team will analyze the data and recode the Thermal Mass and Buoyancy Ventilation proportioning application with the specific thermal conductivity results. We’ll talk to you soon!

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Panel Making

December 20, 2019

This week the Thermal Mass and Buoyancy Ventilation Research Team got to use the largest skill saw they’ve ever seen and we’ll tell you why!

In the technical workshop Sal last week, the team decided to narrow the number of materials they will test throughout the experimental cycle from four to two. The lucky two will be concrete and softwood! Concrete is often used as a thermal mass material while softwood is not which will make comparing the data collected from the separate experiments all the more interesting. The Optimal Tuning Theory calls for the thermal mass to be externally insulated which allows the thermal mass material to be much thinner than a typical thermal mass. Therefore, the concrete and wood need to be panelized.

The thermal properties of wood act most efficiently as a thermal mass when the cross grain is exposed to the air. This means that panelizing the softwood is more like creating giant cutting boards. To practice this process the team used 8″ x 8″ Cypress timbers and their matching 16″ diameter skill saw leftover from the Newbern Town Hall project. The team learned that 6″ x 6″ timbers would be ideal for their project, that way they can cut the cross-grain pieces in one cut with their 16″ skill saw without having to rip down the timber.

The concrete panels are far more straightforward, build a mold, pour the concrete, let it cure. However, the team has to think about how the panels would be attached to a larger structure. To solve this they cast PVC into the panel which will allow it to be screwed into a structure.

Voila! We have much refining to do of the panel making process, but the first two turned out well. We also have here a rendering of the habitable structural with the separate concrete and wood panel rooms. Our next step is to apply what we learned working with these materials to designing and building our first experiment. Thermal Mass and Buoyancy Ventilation Research Team out.

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