Assessing the solar irradiation potential for solar photovoltaic applications in buildings at low latitudes ¿ Making the case for Brazil

In Brazil, a low-latitude country characterized by its high availability and uniformity of solar radiation, the use of PV solar energy integrated in buildings is still incipient. However, at the moment there are several initiatives which give some hints that lead to think that there will be a change shortly. In countries where this technology is already a daily reality, such as Germany, Japan or Spain, the recommendations and basic criteria to avoid losses due to orientation and tilt are widespread. Extrapolating those measures used in high latitudes to all regions, without a previous deeper analysis, is standard practice. They do not always correspond to reality, what frequently leads to false assumptions and may become an obstacle in a country which is taking the first step in this area. In this paper, the solar potential yield for different surfaces in Brazilian cities (located at latitudes between 0° and 30°S) are analyzed with the aim of providing the necessary tools to evaluate the suitability of the buildings’ envelopes for photovoltaic us

Dust suppressant treatments. Quality control = Tratamientos supresores de polvo. Control de calidad

La emisión de polvo por efecto del viento desde depósitos de residuos mineros o industriales y el paso de vehículos en vías no pavimentadas, es un problema que afecta las actividades productivas; el ambiente y la salud de las personas que permanecen en el área contaminada. En Chile, en los últimos años la sensibilidad social y las exigencias ambientales han aumentado, así como la oferta de diferentes supresores y tecnologías de aplicación. Se han revisado las causas que provocan emisión de polvo y las tecnologías disponibles en Chile para la supresión de polvo, además de las metodologías y normativa para evaluar el desempeño de los materiales tratados con diferentes supresores. En algunos casos no es posible comparar propiedades de desempeño, como durabilidad, dosis a aplicar y frecuencia de las aplicaciones, entre otros aspectos. Los procedimientos descritos en la norma NCh3266-2012 permiten evaluar la erosión eólica en depósitos de residuos, sitios eriazos y caminos no pavimentados, entre otros, junto con evaluar el desempeño de diferentes tipos de supresores de polvo a partir de datos objetivos comparables. Esto permite seleccionar el supresor más adecuado, mejorar la eficiencia de los tratamientos, optimizar los costos y mejorar los procesos productivos. Palabras clave: Erosión-eólica, supresor de polvo, residuos-mineros, caminos-no pavimentados. Dust emissions by wind effect from mining deposits or industrial waste and passing vehicles on unpaved roads, is a problem that affects the productive activities; the environment and the health of those who remain in the contaminated area. The social sensitivity and environmental requirements on this issue in Chile have increased, as well as offering different suppressors and application technologies. Have been reviewed the causes of dust emission and technologies available in Chile for dust suppression, plus methodologies and standards for assessing the performance of the treated materials with different suppressors. In some cases it is not possible to compare performance properties such as durability, application dose and frequency of applications, among others aspects. The procedures described in the NCh 3266-2012 standard allows the assessment of wind erosion in waste deposits, vacant lots and unpaved roads, among others, along with evaluating the performance of different types of dust suppressants from comparable objective data. This allows selecting the most suitable suppressor, improve efficiency of treatments, optimize costs and improve production processes. Keywords: Wind-erosion, dust-suppressor, mining-waste, unpavedroad

Optimization of sustainability conditions of the multilayer enclosure of "La Casa Solar"

The Polytechnic University of Madrid has designed an industrialized prototype of a single family house, to participate in the Solar Decathlon 2007 Contest. The design objective was the complete energy self-sufficiency in the annual cycle, and become a research platform for the optimization of this objective. Inside the research lines for the optimization of the prototype there is the one that studies the sustainable materials of the house. We have studied the enclosures of the SD07 prototype to improve the choice of each material involved. The design of the prototype SD0 7 used materials from renewable sources (vegetable fiber panels, OSB), recyclable materials (cold-formed steel), recycled materials (almond shell panels), and material that can be reusable (rolled steel sections, insulation panels, wood panels, floors). We have carried out a simplified assessment of the sustainable conditions of materials used in multilayer prototype SD07 enclosures. We noted, that overall, the level of sustainability of materials used in the prototype SD07 allows us to improve the characteristics of the sustainable design. We have found the main goal for the development of the sustainability that can incorporate aspects for healthier and more respectful conditions for people and the environment

Standard deviation of absolute and differential pressure fluctuations in fluidized beds of group B particles

This work describes the behaviour of the standard deviation of pressure fluctuations in fluidized beds for group B particles in the bubbling regime. An empirical–theoretical function, which depends on the gas velocity, is proposed for predicting the pressure signal fluctuations, and the corresponding values of are calculated. The differences in the standard deviation of pressure fluctuations obtained for absolute or differential sensors are analyzed and compared to experimental values corresponding to different bed dimensions, pressure probe positions and particle properties.This work has been supported by the National Energy Programme of the Spanish Ministry of Education under the project number ENE2006-01401 and by the Universidad Carlos III de Madrid (CCG06-UC3M/ENE-0764).Publicad

Estudio preliminar de las alteraciones del campo geomagnético natural provocadas por los materiales de construcción.

La perspectiva del arquitecto en los aspectos de calidad ambiental, y salud en un contexto sostenible, se amplía al considerar las radiaciones como elemento a tener en cuenta en el diseño arquitectónico. En ese sentido, además del confort higrotérmico y de la calidad del aire, se puede considerar la calidad electromagnética del espacio en relación a la salud de las personas. En este trabajo, se experimenta sobre la influencia del campo geomagnético en relación con diversos materiales de construcción, para ello se toman datos con un geomagnetómetro. Se observa que los materiales de construcción por sus propiedades magnéticas tienen la capacidad de modificar en mayor o menor medida el campo geomagnético natural sobre el cual se desarrolla la vida. Se concluye que la consideración de la relación entre la magnitud del campo geomagnético y los materiales de construcción puede formar parte del criterio de elección de materiales para una arquitectura saludable y sostenible

Competition and Living Lab Platform (Annex 74) Science & Technology (Subtask A) Focus Report 1: Monitoring Data Visualization

The focus report “Monitoring Data Visualization” gives a detailed overview of the obtained monitoring data from Solar Decathlon Europe 2010, 2012, 2014 and Solar Decathlon Middle East 2018 by presenting a large number of illustrations. Each competition is structured in a separate chapter and begins with a brief summary of available data in form of a table. Figures related to comfort measurements, operation tem-peratures of household devices and electrical consumption as well as generation are included in each dataset. In general it can be seen, that resolution and amount of measurement data increases within the history of the Solar Decathlon

Performance of passive application of PCM in Spain

Contemporary construction systems tend to be thinner, lighter and better insulated than ever, but usually lack thermal mass. In order to improve the indoor temperature and reduce the energy consumption in the lightweight building it is necessary to add thermal energy storage capacity to the construction elements. Phase change materials (PCM) have high a heat of fusion so they can absorb a lot of thermal energy before melting or solidifying without adding physical mass. The stored energy can be released later when it is necessary. The main purpose of this study is to quantify the effectiveness of PCMs as interior temperature stabilizers in the Spanish construction. Another goal was to identify the influence of the windows sizes and their shading factor in a PCM´s passive application, and find out the most convenient combinations. A comparative study has been made, simulating a Test Room, with and without PCM, to predict the annual interior temperature behavior in each case. The thermal performance of the test rooms was evaluated on an hour to hour basis, in several Spanish climate zones with diverse combinations of facade glazing ratio and window shadow factors (Fs). The results indicate that the addition of PCM to building partitions help to maintain the interior thermal comfort, reducing the high and low temperature peaks in all Spanish climates studied. The PCM thermal stabilizing capacity is more noticeable in summer. However, the Test Room in the warmer climate falls behind in the overall results. The PCM passive application has demonstrated to help to maintain a uniform interior temperature and to save energy, but its use is not a cost effective solution for all the cases in the study. This study helps to identify when, and where, the use of this PCM application should be more appropriate

Comparativa del comportamiento acústico entre fachadas multicapas ligeras y fachadas tradicionales

Los sistemas de fachadas multicapas ligeras presentan características favorables respecto al ahorro en el consumo energético, ya que presentan un excelente comportamiento térmico. Sin embargo, desde el punto de vista acústico, en general han sido poco estudiados. Los primeros datos que se tienen es que no suelen alcanzar los valores de aislamiento acústico requeridos en el Código Técnico de la Edificación (CTE) en entornos especialmente ruidosos. Por lo tanto, los objetivos principales de esta investigación son obtener sistemas de fachadas multicapas ligeras con un alto grado de aislamiento acústico, que puedan ser empleados en entornos ruidosos. Al mismo tiempo que presenten excelentes características térmicas, sin descuidar aspectos tan importantes como la sostenibilidad de los materiales, la industrialización, los costes, entre otros. En este artículo se explicará el proceso que se ha llevado a cabo para realizar una investigación relacionada con el comportamiento acústico de fachadas multicapas ligeras. Para ello se han empleado los métodos de medida del comportamiento acústico a ruido aéreo e intensimetría sonora. Una vez obtenidos estos resultados se realiza una comparativa entre las fachadas multicapas ligeras y las fachadas tradicionales

Thermal performance of ligth multi-layered facades

Traditional façade systems are at the point where the minimum comfort guarantees have peaked, showing hygrothermic performance deficiencies which result in higher heating consumption, which is why it´s necessary to make improvements in design and building construction, especially in envelopes, for which efficient building enclosures should be used, generating notable benefits. For these reasons, the study of new façade construction systems is essential, particularly light multi-layers, which offer favorable characteristics for energy consumption savings. With this background, the main aim of this study is to generate knowledge to find out to what extent light multi-layered façades are better, determining which façades are the most efficient and guarantee the comfort conditions of a building, contributing in this way to energy consumption savings. To carry out this study, a methodology of analysis shall be used, signifying that in the first phase a theoretical study has been made, analyzing different configurations of the sample façades, to obtain their thermal performance, using two different methods, thermographic and thermal, obtaining in the thermographic study: surface temperatures of the façades, while in the thermal simulation, generating isotherms, heat flows, data on thermal coupling coefficients to calculate the value of the thermal transmittance and surface conditions, among others. Therefore, using this data, the conclusion has been reached that comparing a traditional enclosure to a light multi-layered one of equal thickness, an improvement of 65% can be achieved in the thermal transmittance, which signifies a saving in energy consumption, exceeding the Technical Building Code