Somaesthetics of Discomfort and Wayfinding: Encouraging Inclusive Architectural Design

Somaesthetics of discomfort facilitates intentionally inclusive designed spaces for wayfinding by accounting for individuals’ distinct navigational experiences. Following the work of Richard Shusterman, somaesthetics of discomfort is a combination of somatic awareness and somaesthetic reflection centered around feeling ill-at-ease or out of place. The increased awareness of discomfort and reciprocal reflection upon feelings of discomfort enhances how activities and places are experienced, recognized, and categorized. How people experience difficult wayfinding is an element that is often missing from architectural planning and development. Considering uncomfortable somatic experiences of navigation would provide designers with tools to conceptualize and create wayfinding affordances within various spaces. Discomfort may be understood as a somatic affordance during wayfinding because it indicates that there is something problematic about the intersection of soma and environment. This paper describes wayfinding and somaesthetics as they pertain to architectural design. By using the examples of hospitals and parking garages, somaesthetics of discomfort is introduced as a tool that uses somatic appreciation and individual reflection about wayfinding experiences for improving how spaces are designed

Liquid Jet Experiments and Simulations for a Verification and Validation Study

The velocity field for two vertical parallel water jets impinging into a large stationary volume of water is mapped using ultrasonic interrogation. Thermal mapping of the vertical parallel water jets at high Reynolds numbers has been performed. The velocity data and associated statistics are related to the measurement volume and the ultrasonic Doppler measurement technique. The data are also compared to the literature for twin jets. The interaction of parallel jets is of interest to liquid metal reactor design. Liquid metal fast reactor (LMFR) coolant enters the bottom of the fuel bundles and exits through the top of the bundles. The power levels are not uniform in the bundles, leading to variation in bundle exit flow temperatures. The flow from the fuel bundles must mix thoroughly in the upper plenum of the reactor, prior to exiting through the hot leg of the reactor. Otherwise temperature variations in the hot leg flow can lead to unacceptable thermal stresses. The thermal-fluid phenomena controlling the mixing from twin jets examined here are similar to those controlling mixing of exit flows from the fuel bundles. Consequently, data from the parallel jet geometry are useful to validate Computational Fluid Dynamic (CFD) codes used for liquid metal reactor design. The water tests provide the opportunity to refine experimental technique, and to qualify the ultrasound instrument prior to deployment in liquid metal experiments. The framework for the validation of proposed LMFR CFD simulations is developed. A literature review of jet theory and the state of CFD verification and validation is performed. Following the literature review, CFD scoping studies are performed to aid the placement of instrumentation, data acquisition planning, and the design of the water test facility. The water test facility was then constructed and ultrasonic velocity measurements were performed to characterize the jet time averaged velocity field and local velocity variation statistics. Mathematical transformation between ultrasonic velocity measurements and CFD predictions are established. The ultrasonic velocity data from this project will be corroborated with optical particle tracking data later in the project. This work is funded by a research grant from the NEUP under DOE

Evaluation of HFIR LEU fuel using the COMSOL multiphysics platform

A finite element computational approach to simulation of the HFIR core thermal-fluid behavior is developed. These models were developed to facilitate design of a low enriched core for the HFIR, which will have different axial and radial flux profiles from the current HEU core and thus will require fuel and poison load optimization. This report outlines a stepwise implementation of this modeling approach using the commercial finite element code, COMSOL, with initial assessment of fuel, poison and clad conduction modeling capability, followed by assessment of mating of the fuel conduction models to a one dimensional fluid model typical of legacy simulation techniques for the HFIR core. The model is then extended to fully couple 2-dimensional conduction in the fuel to a 2-dimensional thermo-fluid model of the coolant for a HFIR core cooling sub-channel with additional assessment of simulation outcomes. Finally, 3-dimensional simulations of a fuel plate and cooling channel are presented

Somaesthetics of Discomfort

This essay presents somaesthetics of discomfort as an extension of the field of somaesthetics as developed by Shusterman. Using the work of Peirce and Dewey as a foundation upon which Shusterman and Johnson have considered the body as the basis of aesthetics, I propose that somaesthetics of discomfort provides a means of enhancing bodily awareness and reflection useful for domains of inquiry, such as healthcare and design. Taking Peirce’s notion of the irritation of doubt in a literal sense, I explore bodily discomfort as the inception of inquiry. I consider work done by phenomenologists concerning experiences of comfort and discomfort, which includes definitions of each. My argument follows the perspective put forth by Peirce, Dewey, and contemporary pragmatists that experience is qualitative and that feeling is at the root of reflection. I explain how discomfort may be considered a type of aesthetic experience and provide examples of bodily discomfort as somaesthetic. In closing, I consider somaesthetic focus on discomfort as fostering moral imagination and empathy

The Creative Moment of Scientific Apprehension

Scientific explanation is both instrumental and consummatory. When we experience scientific explanation in its consummation, we experience what I have deemed a creative moment of scientific apprehension, which is an important aspect of creativity that comes at the end of inquiry and contributes to the development of future inquiry. Because scientific explanation is commonly cleaved from aesthetic experience, this moment of creativity has been neglected in both analyses of scientific practice and analyses of aesthetic experience. By synthesizing John Dewey’s conceptions of scientific explanation and aesthetic experience with Charles S. Peirce’s categories, this moment of scientific inquiry is revealed and understood as a fundamental part of our creative reasoning process. In order to argue that scientific explanation is both instrumental and consummatory, Dewey’s instrumental conception of scientific explanation is provided, which includes why science is so often considered as separated from aesthetic experience. A general overview of Dewey’s conception of aesthetic experience and the common division conceived between scientific experience and that of aesthetics is also provided. Reasons are then supplied to reconsider scientific experience as having an aesthetic dimension, especially with regard to scientific explanations and the creative moment of scientific apprehension, which is followed by a brief discussion concerning how recognition of this moment reveals an important aspect of creative reasoning that is to be understood as a part of our experience through what Peirce referred to as firstness and secondness. Analyzing the aesthetic experience of scientific explanations against the backdrop of Dewey’s conceptions of aesthetics and science, combined with Peirce’s categories, accounts for that creative moment of scientific apprehension in which a scientific explanation takes on the quality of kalos, or sense of general harmony, that inspires reverie and future inquiry

Simulating Self-gravitating Hydrodynamic Flows

An efficient algorithm for solving Poisson's equation in two and three spatial dimensions is discussed. The algorithm, which is described in detail, is based on the integral form of Poisson's equation and utilizes spherical coordinates and an expansion into spherical harmonics. The solver can be applied to and works well for all problems for which the use of spherical coordinates is appropriate. We also briefly discuss the implementation of the algorithm into hydrodynamic codes which are based on a conservative finite--difference scheme.Comment: 15 pages, compressed uu-encoded postscript file (232kB), to appear in Computer Physics Communications, special issue Computational Hydrodynamics in Astrophysic

Анализ и разработка способов повышения эффективности работы Томской ГРЭС-2 в летний период

Одно из главных направлений повышения эффективности топливоиспользования на ТЭС – внутристанционная оптимизация режимов паротурбинных установок. Оптимизация режимов абсолютно эффективна, так как в этом случае достигается значительная экономия топлива без дополнительных капитальных вложений. В данной работе предполагается повышение эффективности Томской ГРЭС-2 в летний период, за счёт оптимизации режимов работы и снятия ограничений установленной мощности при увеличении объёмов отпускаемой тепловой энергии внешним потребителям.One of the main directions of improving the efficiency of fuel use at TPP is the internal optimization of the modes of steam turbine plants. Optimization of modes is absolutely effective, since in this case significant fuel savings are achieved without additional capital investments. In this work, it is planned to increase the efficiency of the Tomsk ГРЭС-2 in the summer, due to the optimization of operating modes and the removal of restrictions on the installed power with an increase in the volume of thermal energy available to external consumers

Humility and Inquiry: A Response to Tibor Solymosi

In his essay, “Affording our Culture: “Smart” Technology and the Prospects for Creative Democracy,” Tibor Solymosi addresses my challenge for neuropragmatism to counter what I have elsewhere called dopamine democracy. Although I believe that Solymosi has begun to provide an explanation for how neuropragmatism may counter dopamine democracy, especially with his conceptions Œ and cultural affordances, I respond with a helpful addition to his approach by returning to the theory of inquiry as put forth by John Dewey. In particular, I focus on the phases of inquiry as colored by Dewey’s concept of humility. Solymosi does not pay adequate attention to the function of inquiry necessary for combatting dopamine democracy. His account of cultural affordances and education is strengthened by using Dewey’s concept of humility as a guiding disposition for neuropragmatic inquiry. Recognizing humility as an instrument of neuropragmatic inquiry provides us with a tool to better address the pitfalls of dopamine democracy, especially misinformation and incentive salience. My argument proceeds by first articulating dopamine democracy as a problem and Solymosi’s concept of cultural affordances and how he understands these as neuropragmatic tools to address the problem through education. I present humility as an instrumental concept derived from Dewey’s work on inquiry. I then suggest how humility may serve neuropragmatic inquiry to assist in combatting the problems of dopamine democracy