Grant: Research Tools and Instruments

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.**