Roller Shutters Research Articles

Surface Chalking upon Weathering of Dark-Colored PVC Articles and Relevant Stabilizers.

PVC items (38% carbon atoms w/w) are environmentally friendly as, unlike polyolefins (86% carbon atoms w/w), they are mainly based on chlorine, one of the most abundant elements on Earth and, so, less based on fossil resources. However, in the eco-design context, articles' durability plays a crucial role, contributing to the enhancement of their sustainability. In this framework, the research on additives capable of increasing the weatherability of outdoor articles is essential. The theory section of the paper reviews the mechanisms of weathering that lead to PVC degradation and undermine the durability of items such as window frames or roller shutters. The weathering of PVC items is a complex phenomenon, involving photo-chemical and secondary chemical reactions, that yields the formation of conjugated polyene sequences underskin in the absence of oxygen and carbonyls in the surface. Here, the chain scission of the polymer backbone occurs, bringing about the disintegration of the surface of the item and causing the typical discoloration called chalking, especially evident in dark-colored articles. In the experimental section of the paper, the effect of different acid scavengers on item weathering has been studied using a natural outdoor and two accelerated exposures with xenon-arc and Q-UV testing devices. Results confirm that some acid scavengers are efficient in preventing chalking, but some are ineffective or even detrimental. Thus, the PVC formulations of durable articles upon weathering still depend on a complex choice of the appropriate ingredients, and several outdoor and indoor accelerated-weathering tests are needed to predict the articles' lifetime.

A Personal Microcomputer as an Access Control Management Platform in Road Transport

For many years, the use of new computer systems to control various elements of everyday human life has been observed. Separate systems manage access control; others are used to control blinds and roller shutters; and others manage systems in the garden. Many of these systems can be integrated using available systems. This paper presents an example of an access control management system based on the Raspberry Pi microcomputer and shows an analysis of its performance, accuracy, and possibility of improvement. This study used official devices manufactured by the Raspberry Pi Foundation; however, it is possible to create a similar system with custom parts. This project used open-source software. The authors argued that it is possible to create an autonomous vehicle access control system using microcomputers and optical character recognition technology. Using simple devices, the plate recognition system was built and tested, proving the thesis that it is possible to build an access control system using available devices. This also confirms the thesis that microcomputers can be used to control other systems in the human environment.

Thermal Efficiency of Trombe Wall in the South Facade of a Frame Building

The article presents the possibility of using a mass collector-storage wall (CSW), integrated into the structure of a building with a light skeleton structure. The considered system is a proposal for an energy-saving solution that can be used in buildings with various utility purposes. The article presents the results of experimental tests of a collector-storage wall mounted in the space of the skeleton structure of the southern facade of a building for the period of one year, as well as the results of numerical simulation. In the summer, the influence of the use of heat-insulating roller shutters on limiting overheating of the chamber interior was investigated. The effect of using the roller shutters is a reduction in the average value of the heat flux by about 77%. In the winter, the energy efficiency of the wall was tested. The obtained effect is energy consumption during the heating season at a level comparable to a wall with a traditional structure with a coefficient of U = 0.30 W/(m2K). The results of the numerical tests showed high agreement with the direct results, which provides a basis for the use of such simulations in further research on the search for the optimal structure of a collector-storage wall.

Technological aspects of the use of fire-prevention roller shutters in places of permanent residence and temporary stay of people

This article provides brief statistics on victims of fires in the Russian Federation in preschool educational institutions, medical and medical organizations. It provides a general description of fire-prevention roller shutters, the need for their use in buildings and structures, in accordance with technical regulations, functional fire hazard F1 and F4. The general information and materials used for the manufacture of roller shutters are indicated, the probable places of their installation are suggested - on the internal inter-office and interior windows and doors, on the doors at the entrance and exit from the building, as well as at the gates at the entrance to the garages built into the building. A probabilistic method of using fire-prevention roller shutters on the basis of a preschool educational institution as a result of which hypothetically predicts a decrease in the number of victims during a fire is presented.

Sustainability Assessment of Household Waste Based Solar Control Devices for Workshops in Primary Schools

Part of the large amounts of waste generated by human activities could have a second use while solving social problems. In this sense, the authors are carrying out a research project involving the participative development of innovative solar control devices integrated into school architecture using household waste. In general, the objectives of this research project are to: (a) optimize pupils’ learning process by improving lighting and thermal comfort levels and (b) reduce the generation of Spanish household waste by reusing part of it and increase the teaching community’s awareness about this waste. This research article reports on the steps taken to achieve these objectives by characterizing the most sustainable types of the waste-based solar control device. In this sense, this research paper defines and applies a new methodology which combines General Morphology Analysis (GMA), a new tool based on The Integrated Value Model for Sustainable Assessment and Focus groups. First, up to 96 different types of solar control devices composed of household waste have been defined using GMA and, second, these 96 types and conventional roller shutters have been assessed using this new tool. Based on these article results, one of the best alternatives has been prototyped during an initial workshop.

Occupant behaviour motivations in the residential context – An investigation of variation patterns and seasonality effect

The development of more energy efficient and smarter buildings must include the perspective of the occupants. The knowledge of occupant behaviour motivations is paramount for the design and implementation of intelligent control systems in buildings. This article presents a methodology to investigate the motivations for relevant actions in dwellings. It allows establishing their seasonality and the parameters that define them among other variation patterns. The methodology uses Spearman's correlation analysis to rank the candidate motivations for specific actions. Both continuous and categorical variables can be considered in the analysis, which allows taking into account a wide range of possible motivations. The methodology is demonstrated in a case study where the windows and the roller shutters opening in different rooms were monitored for one year. It was possible to establish the variation of the occupants' behaviour and depict motivations that had a seasonal pattern. The results highlight that the motivations for actions in a building system, performed by a specific set of occupants, can have significant variance depending on the room and environmental parameters. This dependence enables the determination of the seasonality effect. The obtained results also support the need to evaluate the motivations of occupants at a small scale (compartment scale). Following this strategy, a building management system (BMS) can adjust the operation of the dwelling to its occupants, and thus, achieve true building intelligence and optimisation of the energy efficiency.

THE IMPACT OF CELL STRUCTURE ON THE MTO PRODUCTION SYSTEM

Today the customer market is becoming more demanding than ever. In many cases application of the 7R rule alone is not sufficient. The customer wants to have an influence on the final shape, form, functionality and features of the product. This forces entrepreneurs to abandon the make-to-stock (MTS) approach and adopt the make-to-order (MTO) concept, not only to satisfy the customer’s requirements better but also, for example, to reduce costs through manufacturing exactly the quantity of products that the market demands. The article describes an example of such an enterprise. This company is a manufacturer of windows, doors, roller shutters and other products. The custom products department manufactures products where the final look and functionality may be determined by the customer, who can take part in the process by selecting, for example, the shape, dimensions and accessories used. This is entirely make-to-order production. This system offers the benefits mentioned above, but on the other hand production planning is more difficult and the system requires a relatively high degree of production flexibility. The article describes how the application of simple methods of analysis may help to introduce a certain degree of standardisation of processes/operations/activities and to identify and eliminate certain types of waste from the production process.

Life-cycle energy and cost analyses of window shading used to improve the thermal performance of houses

The building sector is one of the largest consumers of natural resources and energy in the world. Strategies to improve the energy efficiency are a solution to improve the performance of a building. However, in most cases, such strategies are assessed only at the operational phase of a building. The life-cycle energy analysis can be an important tool to allow choosing the best strategy. The objective of this paper is to assess the energy performance of four window shading systems in a house using life-cycle energy analysis. Life-cycle cost analysis was also used to determine not only the most energy-efficient strategy, but also the most economically feasible one. A house located in Florianópolis, southern Brazil, was evaluated based on a 63-year lifespan. The four window shadings analysed were: punctured concrete blocks, aluminium double sliding shutters, PVC roller shutters and wooden double open shutters. The EnergyPlus computer programme was used to estimate only the annual energy consumption for air-conditioning with and without the shading strategies. National and international databases were used to perform the life-cycle analysis. For the life cycle cost analysis, the cost of each strategy was obtained through a survey in local stores. The average inflation rate in the last ten years in Brazil was used to estimate the future costs. The results showed that the use of wooden double open shutters and PVC roller shutters are the most suitable solutions for window shading, both in terms of energy and costs, if they are not replaced during the lifespan of the building. This paper pointed out the need of using the proposed methodology to assure the right choice of strategies for energy efficiency in buildings.

Cost of Products Manufactured in Organizational Similar Groups – Case Study

The paper presents selected aspects of production management related to the product customization. Product customization leads to an exponentially increased number of product and process variants, which exaggerates the difficulties in manufacturing in make-to-order production systems. The direct consequence of product customization on production is evidenced by an exponentially increased number of process variants, such as diverse machines, tools, fixtures, setups, cycle times and labors. In the production of mass customization a very important issue is changeovers times. In spite of applying modern management techniques, setup time still plays an important part in the production cycle time. The case study includes the manufacture of roller shutters. This paper presents a method of cost calculation taking into account the manufacturing roller shutters in organizational similar groups. The main purpose of this method is to identify range of costs of elements. The method was validated in the conditions of best practice production for high-variety production.

A Comparative Analysis of the Energy Performance of Traditional Wooden Shutters and Contemporary Aluminium Roller Shutters in Istanbul, a Case Study

Windows are one of the most important components of the building envelope from which several high level performance requirements are expected. Some of these performances are contradictory with each other which increase the importance of the design and material selection of windows. Natural lighting and thermal performance are examples for the contradictions in window design. Usually when transparency is increased in windows the thermal conductivity of the system is also increasing which decrease the overall thermal performance of the window. Shutters are the components of a window which is mainly used to control the natural lighting through a window system. Another important benefit from the shutters may be its contribution to overall thermal performance of the window systems. As a Mediterranean country several types of traditional window shutters have evolved in Turkey. Istanbul is the historical and economical capital city of Turkey and wooden vertical pivoted shutters are the most common type of shutters in the traditional wooden Istanbul houses. There is also a growing trend in the usage of vertical PU filled aluminium roller shutters in these kinds of houses. Two houses using each other type of shutters are examined in 2012 for determining the most efficient type of shutters in terms of energy usage. An inventory analysis is introduced, a comparative assessment of embodied and operational CO2 emissions on the two case houses’ windows is realized and the results are presented in this paper.

Trombe wall management in summer conditions: An experimental study

The application of Trombe walls in temperate climates is problematic due to undesired heat gains and overheating phenomena in summer. A proper shading and ventilation of this system can reduce such drawbacks, but the impact of these strategies on the wall’s thermal parameters is yet not widely investigated in quantitative terms.This paper presents an experimental study on the thermal behavior of Trombe walls in summer under Mediterranean climate conditions. The aim of the study is to determine experimentally the thermal parameters of a Trombe wall in summer conditions through the changing of shading, ventilation and operational conditions.In order to do that a series of experimental campaigns were carried out on a case study. A detailed simultaneous monitoring of two Trombe walls made it possible to compare the thermal behavior by varying the screening, ventilation and internal gains conditions. Furthermore, monitoring of indoor thermal comfort conditions and energy simulation using a model in dynamic state were carried out. The results showed that shading, ventilation and occupancy conditions affect significantly the thermal parameters of Trombe wall in summer: screening with roller shutters determines a decrease in internal surface temperature of the wall of 1.4°C and a decrease in daily heat gains of about 0.5MJ/m2; the combined use of overhangs, roller shutters and cross ventilation for the Trombe wall can assure a satisfactory thermal comfort level in summer and a reduction of the cooling energy needs respectively of −72.9% and −63.0% for a dwelling with low or highly insulated building envelope in comparison with the case of an unvented Trombe wall without solar protections.

Improving the thermal performance of single-glazed windows using translucent granular aerogel

Cost-effective materials, products and installation methods are required to improve the energy efficiency of the UK's existing building stock. The aim of this paper is to assess the potential for high-performance translucent granular aerogel insulation to be retrofitted over single glazing to reduce heat loss without blocking out all of the useful natural light. In situ testing of a 10-mm-thick prototype panel, consisting of a clear twin-wall polycarbonate sheet filled with granular aerogel, was carried out and validated with steady-state calculations. Results demonstrate that an 80% reduction in heat loss can be achieved without detrimental reductions in light transmission. Payback calculations accounting for the inevitable thermal bridging from openable solutions such as roller shutters or pop-in secondary glazing suggest that a return on investment between 3.5 and 9.5 years is possible if products are consistently used over the heating season. Granular aerogel is a promising material for improving the thermal performance of existing windows. Future research will seek to map out different ways in which the material can be applied to the existing UK housing stock, identifying which systems offer the greatest potential for widespread CO2 savings over their life cycle.

The Contribution of Roller Shutters to Noise Insulation of Façades

This paper describes an experimental study of the influence of roller shutters on noise insulation of façades. The study is based on the results of a set of tests carried out in laboratory and in a new residential building, which is typical of Portuguese cooperative construction. The window system (glazing and frame, plus the roller shutter) was first tested in a laboratory. In situ, the tests were performed in two rooms having different window dimensions. The measurements were in accordance with international standards, using a loudspeaker as noise source. The considered shutters positions were: totally opened, half closed, partially closed and completely closed. Additionally, in situ measurements with the window open were also done. The results show that the façade transmission loss curve is affected by shutter position. The investigation highlighted the importance of shutter position when the window is open and the discrepancy between laboratory and in situ measured values.

Variable angle photometric characterization of a laminated glass embedding a lamellae system

Glazing units containing sunshading devices (vertical blades, roller shutters, Venetian blinds, etc.) are available on the market nowadays. These products are roughly divided into two families: double-glazed units with automatically controlled devices in the interspace and monolithic glasses embedding fixed devices. The luminous and solar behaviour of the incorporated sunshading devices is intentionally strongly dependent on the position of the sun in the sky, and therefore the optical characterization of this kind of advanced glazing requires transmittance and reflectance measurements as functions of at least one angular coordinate. In this paper a lamellae system embedded in a plastic matrix and sandwiched between two glass sheets is considered. Transmittance and reflectance of the sample computed from the geometrical parameters of the lamellae system are compared to the corresponding values measured with global and bidirectional variable angle measurement systems. As an example of application of the obtained data in real conditions, the laminated glass containing the lamellae system closes the window of a room and daylighting inside the room is evaluated.