Window System Research Articles

Optimizing indoor thermal comfort with wind towers and earth to air heat exchangers: a sustainable solution for energy-efficient housing

Abstract The conditioning of living and working spaces in the building sector consumes a significant amount of energy. Among the natural ventilation techniques that rely on renewable energy sources such as geothermal and wind, wind towers and earth to air heat exchangers (EAHEs) hold prominence. This research paper presents a series of experiments conducted in the arid region of Bechar, Algeria, to investigate the effectiveness of combined natural ventilation systems employing wind towers and EAHEs. The test chamber, constructed from plywood, and the tower, along with the buried polyvinyl chloride (PVC) pipe EAHE at a depth of 150 cm in sandy-loam soil, constitute a completely natural system with zero energy consumption. Two scenarios were examined: one with closed windows and the other with open windows measuring 40 × 40 cm2. The results indicate a noteworthy improvement in thermal comfort within the chamber, with an increase from 18.75% for the closed window system to 50% when the window is open. By employing a completely natural system without energy consumption, it becomes possible to fulfill 50% of the thermal comfort requirements during both summer and winter seasons. Consequently, this approach reduces at least half of the energy demands in a region that experiences six months of discomfort.

Evaluation of Heated Window System to Enhance Indoor Thermal Comfort and Reduce Heating Demands Based on Simulation Analysis in South Korea

Heated glass can be applied to improve windows’ condensation resistance and indoor thermal comfort in buildings. Although this applied technology has advantages, there are still some concerns in practical applications, such as additional energy consumption and control issues. This study evaluates the effectiveness of a heated window heating (HWH) system in terms of thermal comfort and heating energy performance (HEP). The simulation-based analysis is performed to evaluate the effectiveness of the HWH using a residential building model and to compare it with radiant floor heating (RFH) and hybrid heating (HH) systems (i.e., combined HWH and RFH). This study also investigates the peak and cumulative heating loads using HWH systems with various scenarios of control methods and setpoint temperature. The predicted mean vote (PMV) is used as an indoor thermal comfort index. The ratio of cumulative thermal comfort time to the entire heating period is calculated. The results show that HWH and HH can reduce the heating load by up to 65.60% and 50.95%, respectively, compared to RFH. In addition, the times of thermal comfort can be increased by 12.55% and 6.98% with HWH and HH, respectively. However, considering the social practices of South Korea, HH is more suitable than HWH. Further investigations for HH show that a surface setpoint of 26 °C is proper, considering both heating demands and thermal comfort. In addition, the setpoint temperature should be determined considering HEP and the thermal comfort for HWH, and the optimal setpoint temperature was suggested under specific conditions.

Experimental study on vibration response of wooden house façade to low-frequency outdoor sound

Generally wooden house has low sound insulation performance for low-frequency outdoor noise due to the lightweight façade wall system. Moreover, the sound insulation performance is caused by the vibration responses of window and wall systems, that are strongly coupled with normal modes in a room. In order to clarify the complicated phenomena, field measurements of vibration characteristics are conducted for a test house with Japanese traditional wooden structure, under the cases with single/double window systems. As outdoor sound source, low-frequency band noise from 25 Hz to 160 Hz is emitted from a subwoofer, and vibration acceleration is measured on each element, such as window glazing, interior walls, floor and ceiling. From the analysis of measured vibration transfer functions and indoor sound pressure distribution, the vibration characteristics of the whole coupled system are discussed, especially on the effect of different window systems.

SiREn (simulation of receptors and enzymes): An interactive simulation of enzyme kinetics and pharmacodynamic models

In an era of distance learning and the transition to virtual classrooms, there is a need for strategies to supplement online lectures in an interactive, dynamic way. At California Northstate University, there was a student-observed need to enhance distance learning during the COVID-19 pandemic. In this project, we developed a computer simulation program SiREn (Simulation of Receptors and Enzymes) as one attempt to enhance student learning and retention of key concepts in Enzyme Kinetics and Pharmacodynamics. SiREn is a student-driven idea, and an interprofessional collaboration between members of the College of Health Sciences, College of Graduate Studies, and College of Medicine at California Northstate University. This software was implemented in LabVIEW© language (National Instruments, Inc) and runs on both Windows and Mac Operating Systems. SiREn includes interactive simulations of the Michaelis-Menten, Lineweaver-Burk, Dose-Response, Therapeutic-Index models. All the relevant parameters for the simulation such as substrate concentration, Km, Vmax, and Kd can easily be modified by the user. Two versions of the software were developed: SiREn1 with a teaching emphasis for the College of Graduate Studies and SiREn2 customized for the College of Health Sciences. The latter has already been used in a Pharmacology class in the Spring 2022 semester. Feedback was collected from 16 pharmacology students. Overall, 63% of the users felt that SiREn2 improved their understanding of the Therapeutic Index concept, and 68.8% felt that SiREn2 facilitated self-paced, interactive learning by allowing a dynamic visualization of the formulas under different scenarios. These preliminary results suggest that integrating simulation for complex models is a useful addition to distance learning. This is the first stage of an ongoing project, and SiREn1 is currently being implemented in the Fall 2022 Pharmacology Course with added student suggestions for improvement.

Histological E-data Registration in rodent Brain Spaces.

Recording technologies for rodents have seen huge advances in the last decade, allowing users to sample thousands of neurons simultaneously from multiple brain regions. This has prompted the need for digital tool kits to aid in curating anatomical data, however, existing tools either provide limited functionalities or require users to be proficient in coding to use them. To address this we created HERBS (Histological E-data Registration in rodent Brain Spaces), a comprehensive new tool for rodent users that offers a broad range of functionalities through a user-friendly graphical user interface. Prior to experiments, HERBS can be used to plan coordinates for implanting electrodes, targeting viral injections or tracers. After experiments, users can register recording electrode locations (e.g. Neuropixels and tetrodes), viral expression, or other anatomical features, and visualize the results in 2D or 3D. Additionally, HERBS can delineate labeling from multiple injections across tissue sections and obtain individual cell counts.Regional delineations in HERBS are based either on annotated 3D volumes from the Waxholm Space Atlas of the Sprague Dawley Rat Brain or the Allen Mouse Brain Atlas, though HERBS can work with compatible volume atlases from any species users wish to install. HERBS allows users to scroll through the digital brain atlases and provides custom-angle slice cuts through the volumes, and supports free-transformation of tissue sections to atlas slices. Furthermore, HERBS allows users to reconstruct a 3D brain mesh with tissue from individual animals. HERBS is a multi-platform open-source Python package that is available on PyPI and GitHub, and is compatible with Windows, macOS, and Linux operating systems.

Thermal performance of a window shutter with a phase change material as a passive system for buildings in warm and cold climates of México

This paper shows the thermal performance of a window system with a shading cover made out of a phase change material (window-PCM shutter). The analysis was the numerical study where conjugated heat transfer was considered on the whole system window-PCM shutter. The modeling was conducted under warm (Merida) and cold weather (Toluca) conditions in México for the warmest and coldest day. Two different phase change materials (PCMs) were selected for the study: Paraffin wax - MG29 and n-octadecane. The results show that the n-octadecane and the MG29 were capable of keeping the inside comfort temperature for 14:35 and 16:23 h, respectively.The n-octadecane and MG29 reduced the energy of the window-PCM shutter inside surface by 67.3 and 71.6%, respectively, compared to a conventional window. Under cold weather conditions also occurred reductions of heat fluxes by 87.2 (n-octadecane) and 83% (MG29) with the window-PCM shutter system compared to a conventional window, causing non-comfort temperatures. The use of a window-PCM shutter is highly recommended under warm weather conditions, given that it showed to be a viable option for energy savings in buildings; however, for its implementation under cold weather conditions of México, it becomes necessary further investigations with other PCMs.

Microcontroller Integration in an Automated Power Window Circuit System for Automobile Air Conditioning

Research depicts that vehicular accident is inevitable, especially during long-distance driving journeys due to occurrence such as dehydration and discomfort owing to the inadequate or poor operating performance of car airconditioning systems which can result in loss of the driver’s attention on the road. However, the aforementioned research gap or problem needs to be addressed to ensure the efficient operation of the car air-conditioning system to avert vehicular accidents. Hence, the goal of this research is to utilize a microcontroller to automatically control the car airconditioning system to ensure enhanced operating performance. Moreover, the key merit of this research is to assist drivers by preventing them from losing attention on the road due to a phenomenon such as dehydration and discomfort, especially, during long-distance driving journeys, which can cause vehicular accidents. Besides, another imperative component of this research is to automatically control, thus closing the vehicle’s window louvre once the air conditioner is in operation or turned on to ensure efficient utilization of energy (fuel) of the vehicle and ensure that the ambience in the vehicle is pretty comfortable for the passengers on board. The automated power window system is comprehensively verified by the proteus software. Nonetheless, the results via the simulation depict that the automated power window circuit considered in this paper can effectively and automatically close the vehicle’s window louvre once the air conditioner is turned on.

Development of an automatic opening system for sliding and casement windows to control the natural ventilation rate

Under the influence of COVID-19, ventilation is recommended to reduce the risk of infection in the room. Window openings can increase the ventilation rate caused by indoor and outdoor temperature differences. However, there is a concern that opening the window in the air-conditioned room will increase the heating and cooling loads due to air leakage. In addition, it is difficult to maintain an adequate ventilation rate because the outdoor temperature changes from time to time. To solve this problem, we have developed an automatic opening system to control the natural ventilation rate. This system can control the adequate ventilation rate for the room by adjusting the opening area of the window automatically. In this study, the control equations for the system for sliding windows were derived, and actual measurements were taken with the system. Additionally, the flow coefficients of the casement windows were numerically analyzed. Then, the control equation for the system for casement windows was derived from the relationship between the opening angle and the flow coefficient. As a result, the ventilation rate could be controlled using an automatic opening system for the sliding windows. Also, the flow coefficient of the casement window could be approximated by a sinusoidal function of the opening angle.

Brazilian Adults' Hope and Spirituality in Preoperative Heart Surgery: A Cross-Sectional Study.

Given the incipience of domestic studies on hope and spirituality in cardiology, this study evaluated adult cardiac patients' hope in the preoperative period of cardiac surgery and its potential association with spirituality. This is a cross-sectional study carried out at a university hospital in the State of São Paulo (Brazil). A total of 70 patients answered the Herth Hope Scale and a sociodemographic questionnaire before undergoing surgical procedure between January and October 2018. Descriptive and inferential analyses were performed using the Spearman's rank correlation coefficient and the Mann-Whitney U test. The R-3.4.1 software and SAS System for Windows 9.2 were also used. P-value < 0.05 was considered statistically significant. Patients had a high prevalence of modifiable risk factors. Having a religion (37.53±4.57) and practicing it (38.79±4.25), regardless of its denomination and time dedicated to that religion, was associated with hope (P<0.01) in the immediate preoperative period of cardiac surgery. However, hope did not exhibit a significant correlation with factors such as age (P=0.09) and time dedicated to religious practice (P=0.07). Regardless of the religious strand and time dedicated to religious practices as an expression of spirituality, hope was associated with the participants' religion and religiosity. Considering the importance of this construct on the processes of health and disease, the whole health team should consider in their praxis a setting of conditions to make the patient's spirituality process feasible during hospitalization.

Hermitian Interpolation Using Window Systems Generated by Uniform Shifts of the Gaussian Function

Hermitian Interpolation Using Window Systems Generated by Uniform Shifts of the Gaussian Function

High-transparency clear window-based agrivoltaics

A number of modern glass and window products based on novel glazing designs, low-emissivity thin-film coatings, and proprietary fluorescent interlayer types have been developed recently. Advanced windows of today can control properties such as thermal emissivity, heat gain, colour, and transparency. In novel glass products, solar energy harvesting through PV integration is also featured, enabled by either patterned-semiconductor thin-film energy conversion surfaces, or by using luminescent concentrator-type approaches to achieve higher transparency. Typically, semitransparent and also highly-transparent PV windows are purpose-designed, for applications in construction industry and agrivoltaics (greenhousing), to include special types of luminescent materials, diffractive microstructures, and customized glazing systems and electric circuitry. Recently, significant progress has been demonstrated in building integrated high-transparency solar windows (featuring visible light transmission of up to 70%, with electric power output Pmax ∼ 30−33 Wp/m2, e.g. ClearVue PV Solar Windows); these are expected to add momentum towards the development of smart cities and advanced agrivoltaics in greenhouse installations. At present (in 2023), these ClearVue window designs are the only type of visually-clear and deployment-ready construction materials capable of providing significant energy savings in buildings, simultaneously with a significant amount of renewable energy generation. The objective of this study is to place the recent industrialised development of ClearVue® PV window systems into a broader context of prior studies in the field of luminescent concentrators, as well as to provide some details on the measured performance characteristics of several ClearVue window design types deployed within the building envelope of a research greenhouse, and to elucidate the corresponding differences in their energy harvesting behaviour. An evaluation of the practical applications potential of these recently developed transparent agrivoltaic construction materials is provided, focussing on the measured renewable energy generation figures and the seasonal trends observed during a long-term study. This article reports on the measured performance characteristics of research greenhouse-based agrivoltaic installation constructed at Murdoch University (Perth, Australia) in early 2021.The solar greenhouse at Murdoch University has demonstrated great potential for commercial food production with significant energy savings due to on-site energy production from its building envelope.

Scalable functionalized liquid crystal elastomer fiber soft actuators with multi-stimulus responses and photoelectric conversion.

Liquid crystal elastomer (LCE) fibers exhibit large deformation and reversibility, making them an ideal candidate for soft actuators. It is still challenging to develop a scalable strategy and endow fiber actuators with photoelectric functions to achieve tailorable photo-electro-thermal responsiveness and rapid large actuation deformation. Herein, we fabricated a multiresponsive actuator that consists of LCE long fibers obtained by continuous dry spinning and further coated it with polydopamine (PDA)-modified MXene ink. The designed PDA@MXene-integrated LCE fiber is used for shape-deformable and multi-trigger actuators that can be photo- and electro-thermally actuated. The proposed LCE fiber actuator combines an excellent photothermal and long-term electrically conductive PDA@MXene and a shape-morphing LCE fiber, enabling their robust mechanical flexibility, multiple fast responses (∼0.4 s), and stable and large actuation deformation (∼60%). As a proof-of-concept, we present near-infrared light-driven artificial muscle that can lift 1000 times the weight and an intelligent circuit switch with stable controllability and fast responsiveness (∼0.1 s). Importantly, an adaptive smart window system that integrates light-driven energy harvesting/conversion functions is ingeniously constructed by the integration of a propellable curtain woven by the designed fiber and solar cells. This work can provide insights into the development of advanced intelligent materials toward soft robotics, sustainable energy savings and beyond.

Passive House performance evaluation and key management factor analysis in the Sino-German Ecopark: A study through fieldwork and interdisciplinary joint research

In terms of eco-friendliness, China is far behind advanced western countries. Recently, however, several places in China have been collaborating with the German Passive House Institute to construct eco-friendly buildings on a large scale. This study intends to analyze the passive house construction technology being implemented in the eco-friendly buildings that have been completed or are under construction at the Sino-German Ecopark in Qingdao, among several other complexes, based on fieldwork and interdisciplinary joint research. This study compares the importance of key factors through analytic hierarchy process (AHP) analysis. This study aims to extract and present factors of high difficulty noted in the successful construction of passive houses by examining the fieldwork of three case projects at the Sino-German Ecopark. These factors were divided into three categories: technical factors, policy factors, and managerial factors. Through AHP analysis, it was determined that the policy factors were of higher importance than technical and managerial factors. Barrier-free facilities were the most important factor among all the policy factors, and the window system was the most important among the technical factors. In the case of management factors, project management ability proved to be the most important factor. The findings of this study are expected to serve as a guideline that should be considered in the future Passive House design and construction process.

Design Optimization for Light-Shelves with Regard to Daylighting Performance Improvements in The Tropics

Different daylight device systems and control strategies can be employed in different parts of a window system to perform different functions, particularly for fully glazed façades. A light-shelves with parametric control in both portions of the system were proposed in this study as an innovative daylighting device to improve daylighting distribution and glare probability. The aim of this article was to present a simulation study to investigate the influence of light shelves on daylighting performance improvements in buildings located in tropical climates. Multi-objective optimization method was proposed by classifying the results based on sky conditions. The metrics of Useful Daylight Illuminance and Daylight Glare Probability were used to evaluate the daylight performance and glare to compare the final solutions of the blight shelf parameters of the light shelf. The study concludes that daylight improvements by optimal solutions of light shelves can provide the best range of optimal daylighting for visual comfort in office spaces in the tropics. The idea of a light shelf system with parametric control in both portions (inner and outer) provides the most optimal options for achieving balanced daylighting levels in both the front and back of the room. This resulted in a glare-free environment with undetectable glare indices, and acceptable daylight is accomplished, as well as a high percentage coverage within UDI300-2000 lux between 63% and 73.8% at midday and no less than 55% during working hours.

NUMERICAL INVESTIGATIONS OF THE THERMAL PROPERTIES OF WINDOW SYSTEMS: A REVIEW

Windows are an essential part of building envelopes since they enhance the appearance of the building, allow daylight and solar heat to come in, and allow people to observe outside. However, conventional windows tend to have poor U-values, which cause significant heat losses during the winter season and undesired heat gain in summer. Modern glazing technologies are therefore required to improve thermal resistance and comfort of the occupants, whilst mitigating the energy consumption of buildings. In the present work, a comprehensive review of the numerical investigations of the thermal properties of window systems and glazed buildings partitions is presented. However, the proposed models to predict the thermal performance most often concern only specific cases of window systems related to geometry and used material solutions, focused on specific physical processes, thus they contain a lot of simplifications, such as omitting the influence of radiation, temperature changes or velocity profiles.

TOE framework in risk management during implementation of the Croatian national Port Community System

The subject of this paper is use of Technological-Organisational-External (TOE) framework during implementation of the Croatian national Port Community System between 2018. and 2022. Main research hypothesis is that TOE framework is a suitable, yet generally unrecognized abstract model for project risk mitigation during development of complex maritime cargo single windows systems. Formal development requirements along with the main stakeholders and their internal systems are identified. Project risk is mapped to the framework’s criteria, its execution and main milestones are identified and discussed, including risk occurrences during project execution, leading to confirmation of the work hypothesis. As a conclusion, improvements to the methodology are proposed, along with possibilities of the future research.

SGLSim: tool for smart glazing energy performance analysis

A tool Smart Glazing Simulator (SGLSim), has been developed to perform parametric simulation analysis of different window systems with several window-to-wall ratios and orientations to compute and compare the annual energy performance. The net annual energy performance of the building is based on the electricity consumption in heating, cooling, interior lighting, and appliances, along with the electricity generation by the photovoltaic (PV) glazing, which is used to evaluate the energy performance of smart glazing. Performing parametric energy simulations and calculating the net annual electricity consumption of different combinations requires building modeling and energy simulation expertise. A web-based parametric tool can assist the user in carrying out the desired studies without requiring extensive technical knowledge. A case study is prepared for India’s warm and humid climatic zone. This study examines the benefits of double pane semi-transparent photovoltaics (STPV) glazing, STPV glazing with dynamic internal blind, and electrochromic (EC) glazing over other traditional glazing systems. The study shows that the optimal net annual electricity consumption in the case of STPV windows is 10–12% less than the optimal value obtained in a simple glazing case. Additionally, the result suggested that glare-controlled interior blinds in the STPV window further reduce the net annual electricity consumption by up to 15% compared to conventional glazing. Similarly, installing the EC glazing reduces the yearly electricity consumption by up to 5% compared to standard glazing.

Enhanced system for ns2 trace file analysis with network performance evaluation

One of the critical challenges facing operators around the world is how to ensure that everything is running smoothly as well as how to analyze the performance of the network. Nonetheless, the analytic system must be precise, user-friendly, and quick enough to depict network performance in real time. Network performance is essential for ensuring service quality. In this light, the Network Simulator NS-2 is generally employed for network research on the widely-used UNIX and Windows systems. Next, the network scenarios are generated using network simulation scripts, and upon completion of the simulation, trace files that record network events are generated. Information that might be utilized in a performance study could be recorded in trace files. This could include the total number of packets sent, their arrival times, any delays or losses, and so on. This trace file analysis problem arises mostly because NS-2 does not provide any visualization options for analyzing simulation results (trace files). A system is proposed to analyze the NS2 trace file and facilitate data extraction and evaluation. The main feature of this system is the Java language for network performance evaluation. And to prove the validity of the system, the system was compared with the Trace graph, where the speed of the new system was very high.

Large-scale digital forensic investigation for Windows registry on Apache Spark.

In this study, we investigate large-scale digital forensic investigation on Apache Spark using a Windows registry. Because the Windows registry depends on the system on which it operates, the existing forensic methods on the Windows registry have been targeted on the Windows registry in a single system. However, it is a critical issue to analyze large-scale registry data collected from several Windows systems because it allows us to detect suspiciously changed data by comparing the Windows registry in multiple systems. To this end, we devise distributed algorithms to analyze large-scale registry data collected from multiple Windows systems on the Apache Spark framework. First, we define three main scenarios in which we classify the existing registry forensic studies into them. Second, we propose an algorithm to load the Windows registry into the Hadoop distributed file system (HDFS) for subsequent forensics. Third, we propose a distributed algorithm for each defined forensic scenario using Apache Spark operations. Through extensive experiments using eight nodes in an actual distributed environment, we demonstrate that the proposed method can perform forensics efficiently on large-scale registry data. Specifically, we perform forensics on 1.52 GB of Windows registry data collected from four computers and show that the proposed algorithms can reduce the processing time by up to approximately 3.31 times, as we increase the number of CPUs from 1 to 8 and the number of worker nodes from 2 to 8. Because the distributed algorithms on Apache Spark require the inherent network and MapReduce overheads, this improvement of the processing performance verifies the efficiency and scalability of the proposed algorithms.

Optical evaluation of a smart transparent insulation material for window application

Thermotropic (TT) materials can provide dynamic regulation of solar energy and daylight, thus achieving building energy saving and indoor environment improvement. Parallel Slats Transparent Insulation Materials (PS-TIM) when integrated into the cavity of a double-glazed window can increase the thermal resistance of the window system, thus reducing building heating energy consumption. In this study, these two advanced technologies are combined to form a novel TT PS-TIM window system for adaptive daylighting control and enhanced thermal insulation. To achieve this, thermotropic hydrogels such as hydroxypropyl cellulose (HPC) and poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) (PNIPAm) are proposed for integration within polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) slats between double glass panes. The optical properties of the PMMA-TT slats have been firstly investigated by optical simulations and experiments. Windows integrated with the PMMA-TT slats have been developed and predicted for their daylight performance under different solar incident angles, slat tilt angles and concentrations of HPC/PNIPAm polymer within hydrogel. It was found that the TT PS-TIM window can effectively reduce visible and solar transmittance when the TT material switches from clear (at low temperatures) to translucent (at high temperatures). In addition, the translucent TT PS-TIM window allows less light to be transmitted into the interior space when the slat tilt angle is increased from horizontal to inclined. More uniform daylight distribution in the indoor space can be achieved by increasing the slat tilt angle. The optical investigation results of this research will provide guidance for the further development of this system.