A center dedicated to partnering with industry in the development, demonstration, evaluation, and deployment of new technologies and analysis
tools for high performance buildings.
Center for High Performance Buildings
Center for High Performance Buildings, Ray W. Herrick Laboratories, Purdue University
177 S. Russell Street, West Lafayette, IN 47907-2099
Phone: +1-765-494 2132., Email: [email protected], Website: https://engineering.purdue.edu/CHPB
Center for High Performance Buildings
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Overview
The Center for High Performance Buildings (CHPB) at the Ray W. Herrick Laboratories was established in 2013 through a construction grant from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). Its mission is to partner with industry to develop, demonstrate, and evaluate new technologies and analysis tools that can enable dramatic improvements in the performance of buildings in terms of energy, environmental impact, and occupant satisfaction and productivity. The CHPB is a multi-disciplinary effort involving researchers from Mechanical, Architectural, Electrical, and Computer Engineering and Psychological Sciences. The team has the expertise and unique facilities to consider a wide range of applications related to engineered environments that address numerous important issues in indoor environmental quality, human comfort and productivity, comfort delivery systems, building envelopes, lighting, equipment efficiency and reliability, environmental impact, controls, automation, etc. The team can span the spectrum from fundamental research to technology development to technology evaluation to technical assistance covering the thrust areas depicted in the adjacent figure and employing a variety of unique, state-of-the-art testbeds that include:
1. Fully-instrumented living laboratory offices that have reconfigurable facades, comfort delivery, and primary equipment to allow testing for impacts of new building technologies on energy and human performance indices and to generate data needed for model validations;
2. Perception-based engineering (PBE) facility to study combined impacts of lighting, acoustics, air quality, vibration, temperature, humidity and air flow on occupant perceptions and performance in a controlled manner;
3. Laboratory-scale facilities to allow controlled testing of building envelopes, lighting/façade
automation, air distribution, cooling/heating equipment, heat exchangers, compressors; The building has a LEED-Gold classification, but the primary goal in the design was to have a facility that will allow research on technologies that go well beyond LEED.
CHPB Research
Areas
Center for High Performance Buildings
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Reconfigurable Living Laboratories
4 nearly identical office spaces, each housing 20 graduate
students
Reconfigurable to enable direct comparisons of
alternative technologies for windows, lighting, comfort
delivery, controls and acoustic treatments
Comfort delivery options include air supply from ceiling,
floor or side-wall diffusers along with radiant floor
heating and radiant chilled beam cooling
Double fades with different options for ventilation and
energy recovery
Well-instrumented and separate primary equipment for
each LL to allow direct energy comparisons
Occupant studies (comfort, annoyance, productivity) can
allow full operational assessments of new building
technologies
Evaluation of promising new technology in a real-world
setting
Center for High Performance Buildings
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Perception-Based Engineering Laboratory The Perception-Based Engineering (PBE) Laboratory enables occupant response testing under controlled conditions in a facility that is highly reconfigurable. Lighting, acoustics, vibration, air quality, temperature, humidity and visual stimuli can be manipulated to examine individual and combined effects. The room can be configured to simulate building environments to conduct fundamental stimulus-perception research as well as to examine how stimuli levels influence comfort and performance. The south facing façade is reconfigurable in order to study effects of natural daylighting on occupant satisfaction/performance. It houses a six degree-of-freedom shaker and a high-resolution motion capture system. This facility can enable the development of a better understanding and models for the impacts of all indoor variables on human comfort and productivity.
Center for High Performance Buildings
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HVAC&R Equipment Facilities A wide variety of facilities exist for testing HVAC&R equipment under controlled systems, including two pairs of psychrometric chambers, a compressor calorimeter, a variety of small-scale compressor test stands, a wind tunnel for testing heat exchangers under normal and fouled conditions, geothermal heat exchange, centrifugal chiller for fault testing, an ice storage test facility, etc.
The two pairs of psychrometric chambers allow testing of primary heating and cooling equipment up to 10 tons from temperatures of -20 to 125 F and over a broad range of humidity conditions. An active desiccant dehumidification system is employed to improve moisture removal at low ambient temperatures.
The heat exchanger facility allows controlled testing of evaporators, condensers, cooling coils, or heating coils over a range of capacities up to around 10 tons. A dust injector allows evaluation of the impacts of fouling on performance.
The geothermal field consists of 16 vertical U-tube heat exchangers with bores of 300 feet deep. The heat exchangers are instrumented to allow determination of ground heat transfer. One of the bores is instrumented with temperature sensors along its length to allow detailed model validation. Ground heat exchanger flow rates and inlet temperatures can be continuously varied to enable testing of advance control strategies. There is an opportunity to add up to 8 bore holes for evaluation of new ground-source heat exchanger technologies.
Indoor Air Quality Facility The indoor air quality chamber allows study of the impact of air distribution on indoor environmental conditions, including air temperature, humidity, velocity, and contaminant concentration. The facility consists of two well-insulated chambers to simulate an indoor space adjacent to an ambient condition. The indoor room is reconfigurable to allow air supply from ceiling, wall, or under-floor diffusers. It is also reconfigurable to allow consideration of different types of indoor environments, such as offices, classrooms, industrial workspaces, air craft passenger areas, etc. The indoor chamber is equipped with a particle image velocimetry (PIV) system to enable visualization of the flow field. Measurement arrays of thermocouples, hot-wire anemometers, humidity sensors, and gas sampling tubes connected to a gas chromatograph allow detailed 3-dimensional characterizations.
Center for High Performance Buildings
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Architectural Engineering Labs The architectural engineering labs consist of several room-scale test spaces to study the combined impact of envelope/facade systems, lighting and thermal systems and controls on energy and comfort. The facilities include side-by-side test offices (with reconfigurable façade, glazing, curtain wall, shading, lighting, mixed-mode cooling, radiant cooling systems) and flexible, customized controls for each component. The spaces are fully instrumented with indoor and outdoor temperature, illuminance, solar radiation, air velocity and humidity sensors, a weather station, power meters and imaging photometer camera systems. Except for comparative testing of technologies under real weather conditions, the facilities are used for accurate and realistic assessment of building design and control options on energy use, indoor conditions and comfort indices, and prototyping of new predictive control algorithms and new building technologies. Moreover, the facilities are used to develop and study renewable energy technologies, such as photovoltaic-thermal systems and solar collectors (solar heating and cooling).
Center for High Performance Buildings
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Faculty
James E. Braun Director of the Center for High Performance Buildings
Herrick Professor of Engineering [email protected], (765) 494-9157
Modeling, analysis, and optimization with applications to: Intelligent Controls, Automated Diagnostics,
Component & System Improvements, and Building Simulation Tools
Stuart Bolton Professor of Mechanical Engineering [email protected], (765) 49-42139
Noise Control, Sound Absorbing Materials and Systems, Sound Propagation and Transmission, Source
Characterization, and Sound Field Visualization and Simulation
Brandon Boor Assistant Professor of Civil Engineering
[email protected], (765) 496-0576
Indoor & urban air pollution, human exposure assessment, aerosol science, bioaerosols, airborne nanoparticles, low-cost air quality monitoring, health effects of air pollution
Qingyan Chen
Vincent P. Reilly Professor of Mechanical Engineering [email protected], (765) 496-7562
CFD for air flow in & around buildings with applications to: Indoor Air Quality, Homeland Security, Energy
Analysis
George Chiu Professor of Mechanical Engineering [email protected], (765) 494-2688
Dynamic Systems and Control, Mechatronics, Embedded Systems and Real-Time Control
Patricia Davies
Professor of Mechanical Engineering Director, Ray W. Herrick Laboratories [email protected], (765) 49-49274
Impacts of Noise on People: Annoyance, Speech Interference, Sleep Disturbance;
Sound Quality and Sound Perception. System Identification and Signal Processing.
Center for High Performance Buildings
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Eckhard A. Groll Reilly Professor of Mechanical Engineering
Director, Office of Professional Practice [email protected], (765) 496-2201
Experiments and modeling with applications to: Alternative Refrigeration Technologies, Natural Refrigerants,
and Component & System Performance
W. Travis Horton Assistant Professor of Civil Engineering
[email protected], (765) 494-6098
Ground-Coupled Heat Pumps, Building Energy Performance Analysis
Jianghai Hu Associate Professor of Electrical Engineering
[email protected], (765) 496-2395
Neera Jain Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering
[email protected], (765) 496-0436
Dynamic modeling and optimal control applied to building systems and equipment
Panagiota Karava Associate Professor of Civil Engineering [email protected], (765) 494-4573
Human-Building Interactions, Personalized Controls, Self-tuned Environments,
Buildings Systems Modeling and Identification, Model-Predictive Control, Building-Integrated Solar Energy Systems
Robert Proctor
Distinguished Professor, Cognitive [email protected], (765) 494-0784
Human Performance, Human Factors and Human-Computer Interaction, and Experimental Research Methods
Ming Qu
Associate Professor of Civil Engineering [email protected], (765) 494-9125
Solar Energy Systems, Intelligent Controls, Absorption Systems
Thanos Tzempelikos
Associate Professor of Civil Engineering [email protected], (765) 496-7586
Building Envelope, Lighting and Daylighting, Dynamic Facades, Thermal and Visual Comfort, Building
Simulation and Energy Modeling
Center for High Performance Buildings
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Past Projects
Optimal Design of Building Systems
Old-Flooded Vapor Compression A/C Systems for Hot Climates
Model Predictive Control for Buildings with Mixed-Mode Cooling
Performance of Heat Exchangers and Heat Sinks after Air-Side Fouling and Cleaning
Secondary Loop Air Conditioner for Residential Application Using Propane
Cold Climate Heat Pump using Vapor Injected Compression
Heat Pump System with Liquid Flooded Compression
Visual Comfort Assessment in Spaces with Smart Façade Controls
Development of shading and lighting control algorithms
Commercial Building Retrofit Assessments
Optimization Methodology for Energy-Efficient Housing
Air Cycle Heat Pumps for Industrial Applications
Investigation of Methods to Reduce the Effects of Mal-distribution on Evaporator Performance
Development and Assessment of Heuristic Control Strategies for a Multi-Zone Commercial Building
Employing a Direct Expansion System
Distributed Model Predictive Control for Building HVAC Systems
Development of Plug-and-Play Optimal Control Algorithms for Small Commercial Buildings
Analysis of a Rotating Spool Expander for Organic Rankine Cycles in Heat Recovery Applications
Design and Test Organic Rankine Cycle with a Scroll Expander
Increasing Net Work Output of Organic Rankine Cycles for Low-Grade Waste-Heat Recovery
Liquid Flooded Ericsson Power Cycle
Econometric Modeling and Optimization of CHP Operations of the Wade Power Plant
Waste Heat Recovery Options in Large Gas-Turbine Combined Power Plants
Optimizing the Control of Free Cooling and Energy Storage Options at Purdue
High COP Heat Pumps for Commercial Energy Applications
Low-Cost Virtual Power and Capacity Meter for Rooftop Units
RTU Economizer Diagnostics using Bayesian Classification
Virtual Sensor-Based RTU FDD for Multiple Simultaneous Fault Diagnoses
Methodology for Evaluating Performance of Diagnostics for Air-Conditioners
Mechanistic Modeling of a Dual-Unit Variable-Speed Ductless Heat Pump System
Inverse Modeling to Simulate Fault Impacts for Air Conditioning Equipment
Inverse Heat Pump Modeling
Integration of Humans and their Environment in Building Design and Operation
System Identification and Model-Predictive Control of Office Buildings with Integrated Photovoltaic-
Thermal Collectors, Radiant Floor Heating and Active Thermal Storage
Integration of Occupant Interactions with Window Blinds on Model Predictive Control of Mixed-Mode
Buildings
Plug-and-Play Cyber-Physical Systems to Enable Intelligent Buildings
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2016 CHPB Sponsored Projects
Development of Self‐Tuned Indoor Environments
Investigation of Chemical Looping for High Efficiency Heat Pumping
Development of General Purpose Simulation Tools for Positive Displacement Compressors
Evaluating the Benefits across the U.S. of Variable-Speed Equipment for Packaged Rooftop Units (RTUs)
Optimizing Seasonal Cooling and Heating Performance of Unitary Heat Pumps using Variable Speed Compressors and Fans
A Sequential Approach for Achieving Separate Sensible and Latent Cooling
High Performance, Multi-Functional Building Envelopes Integrated with Lighting and Thermal Systems operation
Assessment of Alternative Technologies for Sustainable Housing Developments
An Inverse Modeling Toolbox for Buildings
Further Development of Fast Fluid Dynamics for Indoor Air Quality and Thermal Comfort Study and Control
Development of a Simulation Model Predicting Efficiency Gains for Residential Appliances Utilizing Thermal Integration
National/Regional Assessments of Demand Response Potential in Small Commercial Buildings
Automation and Demonstration of an RTU Coordinator in Small/Medium-sized Commercial Buildings
2016 Industry Members