Proposed Measures to Protect Temporary Roofs from Unwanted Heat Gains

This study focuses on the uncompleted multi-storey residential buildings located in hot climates. This construction pattern is common in the case of incremental housing, where additional floors are added to the building as housing needs grow. Top roofs in these buildings are usually left without thermal insulation until the rest of upper floors are erected. This causes higher thermal discomfort in the top flats compared to the lower ones. Thus, the aim of this study is to investigate thermal effect of some proposed temporary measures that are intended to protect these roofs from unwanted heat gains until the rest of storeys are constructed. This has been carried out using thermal modelling to find out the effect of these measures on the amount of heat transfer through the roof in both summer and winter times. The analysis showed that it is possible to achieve competent thermal protection of the top roof compared to the layered thermal insulation using simple, cost-effective, and reversible measures. Among the examined measures, covering the roof with white foldable sheets and the use of pergolas have been found to be the most effective measures. In both cases, a reduction of 38% in conductive heat transfer through the top roof in summer was observed compared to the unprotected modelling case

Bridging the Gap Between the Past and the Present: a Reconsideration of Mosque Architectural Elements

Mosques are among the most important building types for any community, where Muslims gather for their prayers and social activities. Mosque architecture has developed over history and faced several dramatic changes. This raises a question regarding the reality of mosque architecture and how it should look like today. This paper discusses this issue through a historical overview and some critical observations. Firstly, the paper discusses the historical functional role of mosque basic elements. Validity of these elements within the context of modern architecture has been argued considering the contemporary inputs that have a significant impact on mosque architecture. Several cases are presented and discussed in this regard. The study concluded that there is a great symbolic and spiritual value of these elements that should be maintained. The analysis carried out of several contemporary cases revealed that there is a wide margin to revive and reintroduce these elements in the light of the modern architectural trends. In addition to their functional roles, mosque architectural elements could be used as identity elements of the Islamic city, microclimatic modifiers, and linking tools between the past and the present

University of Miami Industrial Assessment Center

This report documents all activity of the University of Miami Industrial Assessment Center (MIIAC) grant awarded by the United States Department of Energy (USDOE) Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) Industrial Technology Program (ITP). This grant was coordinated through a collaborative effort with the Center for Advanced Energy Systems (CAES) located at Rutgers University in New Jersey (www.caes.rutgers.edu) which acted as the program’s Field Manager. The grant’s duration included fiscal years 2003-2006 (September 2002 – August 2006), and operated under the direction of Dr. Shihab Asfour, Director (MIIAC). MIIAC’s main goal was to provide energy assessments for local manufacturing firms. Energy consumption, productivity enhancement, and waste management were the focus of each assessment. Energy savings, cost savings, implementation costs, and simple payback periods were quantified using scientific methodologies and techniques. Over the four-year period of the grant, the total number of industrial assessments conducted was 91, resulting in 604 assessment recommendations and the following savings: 73,519,747 kWh, 435,722 MMBTU, and $10,024,453 in cost savings. A total of 16 undergraduate and graduate students were trained on energy assessment. Companies in over 40 different zip codes were assessed

Integration of Photovoltaics into Gaza Strip Residential Buildings: A Comparison between Roof and Façade Installation

Abstrac

Dealing with the incompatible!

Thesis (M.S.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Architecture, 1987.Bibliography: leaves 85-86.The thesis attempts to study the urban structure of a traditional quarter in Cairo through a sociological point of view. In order to pursue this study it is necessary to understand the relationship between the built form and its users. From this understanding stems the approach of how to discern the social study in a way that could be useful and apprehendable to the architect. Before undertaking the case study, examples of other sociological studies are extracted to demonstrate the connection between behavioral patterns of the users and t heir built environment. These preliminary examples show how the built form, together with the disposion of its elements, could be understood through social studies. The problem facing the architect that will be revealed through the research is that the social scientist mainly deals with different layers of interactions between the members of the community, without showing how this interaction resonates with the built form. Consequently the architect may find a great difficulty in trying to incorporate social studies into design criteria. And from there, the sense of incompatibility emerges. In this regard, the research attempts to bridge the gap created by the lack of communication between the two disciplines: social science and urban design.by Khaled S. Asfour.M.S

The villa and the modern Egyptian intelligentsia : a critique of conventionalism

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Architecture, 1991.Includes bibliographical references (leaves 227-285).by Khaled Asfour.Ph.D

An Application of the Complier Average Causal Effect Analysis to Examine the Effects of a Family Intervention in Reducing Illicit Drug Use among High‐Risk Hispanic Adolescents

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/107494/1/famp12068.pd

Postgraduate writing groups as spaces of agency development

AbstractAcademic writing is a peculiar phenomenon – it varies greatly from discipline to discipline and its requirements are rarely made overt. Taking on the writing practices of the academy has implications for identity and it is thus unsurprising that it is seen to be a risky endeavour. This article analyses the experiences of postgraduate scholars who have participated in writing groups that meet weekly to read each other’s work and provide supportive critique. Thirty-two people provided detailed, anonymous evaluations of their writing groups and these were analysed using a discourse analysis. Three main findings are discussed here. Firstly, writing circles allowed for academic writing development to be engaged with as a social practice, where the disciplinary norms could be made more explicit through peer deliberation, and where they could also be challenged. Secondly, the lack of hierarchical power in the writing groups was key to making safe spaces for agency development, and also for providing positive peer pressure whereby participants were spurred on to work on their writing. Thirdly, the fact that the groups were interdisciplinary, within cognate disciplinary families, provided an interesting challenge in that the students had to consider what these non-specialist readers would or would not understand. This process assisted students in clarifying their writing. Participants’ evaluation of the writing groups revealed an overall sense that these contributed to postgraduate student wellbeing and were places of significant agential development

Tin Whisker Electrical Short Circuit Characteristics Part 2

Existing risk simulations make the assumption that when a free tin whisker has bridged two adjacent exposed electrical conductors, the result is an electrical short circuit. This conservative assumption is made because shorting is a random event that has a currently unknown probability associated with it. Due to contact resistance electrical shorts may not occur at lower voltage levels. In this experiment, we study the effect of varying voltage on the breakdown of the contact resistance which leads to a short circuit. From this data we can estimate the probability of an electrical short, as a function of voltage, given that a free tin whisker has bridged two adjacent exposed electrical conductors. In addition, three tin whiskers grown from the same Space Shuttle Orbiter card guide used in the aforementioned experiment were cross-sectioned and studied using a focused ion beam (FIB)