Walk-in dual climate chamber (2C) for building envelope testing

该提案旨在支持瑞尔森大学建筑科学系的建筑科学小组通过购买步入式双气候室（2C）对先进的建筑系统进行尖端研究。PI和co-PI研究小组专注于开发先进的建筑系统，以大幅降低建筑物的能源需求并延长建筑物的使用寿命。正在进行的研究得到了多项研究赠款（包括授予PI和联合PI的NSERC DG）的支持，重点关注通过在瑞尔森建筑科学实验室进行的多项实验表征以及通过现场监测来开发和优化建筑系统。然而，由于PI和co-PI研究小组的主要目标是对建筑系统进行彻底的热物理研究，因此通过完全控制温度和相对湿度来系统地研究环境中的真实规模建筑系统至关重要。特别是，越来越需要在实验室环境中复制典型的加拿大气候条件，以在受控环境下探索建筑系统的有效行为和性能，同时分析特定实验变量的影响。所要求的工具将主要用于调查正在进行的NSERC DG、Engage和CRD项目正在开发的建筑系统。例如，在目前正在研究的透明系统中，到目前为止，在不同腔体中具有半透明PCM和气凝胶的玻璃系统仅在高达20 cm的尺度下进行了测试，而2C将能够在真实尺度的场景中研究这些建筑系统。类似地，在不透明系统中，具有PCM或气凝胶增强材料的多层建筑面板需要热室来系统地研究它们的滞后性和不均匀性。2C还将能够调查新型高性能外壳的漏气率和耐用性。*该RTI应用程序的主要目标是：*-提高PI和co-PI研究小组调查和优化新的尖端先进建筑系统的能力。实验室实验将研究加拿大气候条件对所研究系统湿热性能的影响，室内舒适度的好处和潜在的能源成本节约。帮助将最新材料建筑科学发现的技术转移到国家建筑部门。这项工作将提供新的技术解决方案，以促进建筑物的节能，减少温室气体排放和建筑物的燃料贫困。通过独特的体验式学习方法，获得急需的新工具，以培训HQP掌握新的先进建筑系统的世界级技能。**

This proposal aims to support the Building Science Group at Ryerson University's Department of Architectural Science to perform cutting-edge research on advanced building systems by enabling the purchase of a walk-in dual climate chamber (2C). The PI & co-PI research groups focus on the development of advanced building systems to drastically reduce a building's energy demand and to increase the building service life.***The ongoing research, supported by several research grants (including NSERC DGs awarded to both the PI and co-PI), have focused on developing and optimizing building systems through several experimental characterizations performed in the Ryerson Building Science Lab as well as through in-situ monitoring. However, as the primary goal of the PI's & co-PI's research groups is to conduct a thorough thermo-physical investigation of the building systems, it is critical to systematically investigate real-scale building systems in environments by fully controlling temperature and relative humidity. In particular, there is an increasing need to replicate typical Canadian climatic conditions, in a laboratory setting, to probe the effective behavior and performance of building systems, under a controlled environment while analyzing the effect of specific experimental variables.***The requested tool will be primarily used in the investigation of the building systems under development for the ongoing NSERC DGs, Engage and CRD projects. For example, among the transparent systems currently under investigation, glazing systems with translucent PCMs and aerogels in different cavities have been so far only tested at scale of up to 20 cm, while 2C will enable to study these building systems in real-scale scenarios. Similarly, among the opaque systems, multi-layer building panels with PCM or aerogel-enhanced materials require a thermal chamber to be systematically studied with regard to their hysteresis and inhomogeneity. 2C will also enable the investigation of air leakage rates and durability of novel high performance enclosures.***The main goals of this RTI application are: ***- To increase the ability of the PI & co-PI research groups to investigate and optimize new, cutting-edge advanced building systems. The Lab experimentation will examine the influence of Canadian climatic conditions pertaining to the hygrothermal performance of systems under investigation, the benefits for indoor comfort levels and potential energy-cost savings.***- To help the technological transfer of the latest material building science discoveries into the national construction sector. This work will provide new technical solutions to contribute to energy saving in buildings, reducing greenhouse gas emissions and fuel poverty in buildings.***- To obtain a highly needed new tool in order to train HQP with world-class skills on new advanced building systems through unique experiential learning approaches.**