ASHRAE Journal - October 2013 - 72

ReseaRch RepoRt

specific contamination problems (airports, odiferous neighbors, plant floor offices, etc.);
and, 3) for protection of high-value equipment against hostile environments (computer
rooms, telephone switch gear, etc.). The use of GPAFE impacts ventilation system design
substantially because of the space and pressure drop requirements. HVAC design professionals (ASHRAE members) need to know how well the equipment they specify will
perform in removing contaminants and they need to be able to contrast different design
options based on comparable and objective data. The objective on this project is To provide
lab data on efficacy and life using the test method described in ANSI/ASHRAE Standard
145.1-2008 to make comparisons for: a) Accelerated (high challenge concentration) and
Application (very low challenge concentration) conditions. b) Multiple adsorbent media
including, but not limited to, activated carbon and impregnated activated carbon. c) Physical Adsorption and Chemical Adsorption removal mechanisms. Provide independently
generated test results to the ASHRAE peer-reviewed literature and ASHRAE Handbook.
Contribute to the development of test methods to estimate and compare the long-term
performance of GPAFE.
Procedures
1561-RP Variations to Adjust Observed Climatic Data for Regional or Mesoscale
September 2012 – August 2014; Novus Environmental; Principal Investigator, Xin Qiu; TC 4.2, Climatic Information

Engineers and architects will greatly benefit from the additional techniques as
described above. Though we do not know what percentage of ASHRAE members are
architects and engineers, the results of this project would certainly impact most design
engineers who perform HVAC load and energy estimates on a routine basis in their daily
work. Software for mesoscale climate modeling and its documented implementation
procedures to estimate climatic information will become available and the benefits will
extend well beyond the ASHRAE membership. The tool will benefit all building owners
and occupants as indoor comfort will be enhanced and energy savings can be obtained
from more accurate calculations.

1564-RP Measurement of Oil Retention in the Microchannel Heat Exchangers
October 2011 – July 2014; Oklahoma State University; Principal Investigator, Lorenzo Cremaschi; TC 8.4, Air-to-Refrigerant
Heat Transfer

This work will provide essential design data for state-of-art microchannel heat exchangers by showing how much oil is held up, causing the heat transfer performance
degradation and additional pressure drops at various operating conditions. This is an
excellent opportunity for ASHRAE to provide important design information that has not
been clearly answered before and falls in the gap between manufacturers, designers, and
installers. This work provides key information that may challenge compressor manufacturers and installers to more carefully measure how much oil to add to systems. This
work may also show that over-charging a system with oil is just as bad — or worse — than
over-charging a system with refrigerant. While the practice of overcharging systems may
seem like a reasonable practice in the field from a durability standpoint, it may actually
be a tremendous waste of oil, refrigerant, money and energy.

1581-RP

Develop Alternate Set-up Guidelines for Unitary Air Conditioner Test
Configurations Which Cannot Adhere to ASHRAE 37/ASHRAE 116
Specified Duct Dimensions and External Pressure Tap Locations

April 2012 – January 2014 (P); Texas A&M University; Principal Investigator, Michael Pate; TC 8.11, Unitary and Room Air
Conditioners and Heat Pumps; Co-sponsor: TC 6.3, Central Forced Air Heating and Cooling Systems; AHRTI $25,000 co-funder

As HVAC indoor equipment continues to grow to meet the efficiency demands of
the consumer, the ability of the test lab to produce accurate and repeatable data will be
strained. The current state-of-the-art has exceeded the ability of many test lab facilities
to test per the standards. Perfectly good equipment could fail audit tests as a result of not
using the correct ASHRAE geometry. A high-efficiency design may be rated significantly
below its actual capability because the ASHRAE geometry is not adhered to by the manufacture. Both of these cases are unacceptable in a competitive market place.
The objective of this project is to experientially develop standardized geometry that
will be utilized by laboratories when necessary to test unitary air-conditioning equipment
in configurations that deviate from ASHRAE specified duct dimensions and external
pressure tap measurement locations. This geometry will need to produce static pressure measurements that are within 5% of what standard ASHRAE duct design produces.
of Alternative
1584-RP Assessment Refrigerant Approaches to Predicting the Burning
Velocity of a
September 2011 – October 2013 (P); Northwestern University; Principal Investigator, Mohammed Metghalchi; TC 3.1,
Refrigerants and Secondary Coolant; AHRTI $15,000 co-funder

The objective of this project is to identify technically acceptable parameters that may
be used to accurately predict or estimate the burning velocity of refrigerants. These techniques could be used as predictive tools to estimate burning velocity. The identification
of a reliable, less expensive approach to measure burning velocity will reduce the cost of
safety classification and increase the participation in the development of new refrigerant
candidates that may be only mildly flammable. A potential commercial outcome may be
the faster development of mildly flammable, low GWP refrigerants.

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Representative Layer-by-Layer Descriptions for Fenestration
1588-RP Systems with Specified Bulk Properties Such as U-factor and SHGC
September 2013 – August 2014; White Box Technologies, Inc.; Principal Investigator, Yu Joe Huang; TC 4.7, Energy Calculations; Co-sponsor: TC 4.5, Fenestration;

The objective of this project is to develop a methodology to create representative detailed
specifications for fenestration systems defined only by bulk properties such as U-factor
and SHGC, and generic descriptions of the system, and implement this methodology as a
computer program that can be used by engineers and building energy modelers without
specialized knowledge of fenestration systems. For a given U-factor and SHGC, the methodology should produce a fenestration system that the fenestration and building industries
would regard as realistic and representative, as well as all its thermal and optical properties needed to model this system in a building energy simulation program. If additional
information on the fenestration system is available, as probably in 95% of the cases (either
from visual inspection or product literature for actual products, or mandated for building
standards calculations), the methodology should be flexible enough to incorporate this
information so as to produce a representative fenestration system that has no discrepancy
from its known properties. The goal for this software tool is to fill the missing pieces of
input data to enable a detailed layer-by-layer simulation of the fenestration system, and
not to develop a simplified non-physical model.

1590-RP

Implementation of Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) Principles into
Higher Education as an Integrated Decision Making Tool

September 2009 – October 2013 (P); APPA; Principal Investigator, Douglas Christensen; TC 7.8, Owning and Operating Costs

The research effort will focus on the “Implementation of Total Cost of Ownership (TCO)
Principles into Higher Education as an Integrated Decision Making Tool”. This study will
focus on the principles of TCO and will be in alignment with both interoperability and
sustainability practices. APPA will invite up to 25 institutions to participate in this study.
The data collected from these institutions will provide the necessary data for analysis and
establishment of a “standard of practice” for the industry and could result in a Standard
for applying TCO and/or a guideline for utilizing TCO in Facilities Management.
The study will also help to significantly expand the ASHRAE Service Life and Operating
Cost Database with additional buildings and equipment.

1592-RP CHP Design Guide – Update to the Cogeneration Design Guide
(1996)
October 2011 – October 2013 (P); Exergy Partners Corporation; Principal Investigator, R. Sweetser; TC 1.10, Cogeneration
Systems

The objective of this project is to update the Cogeneration Design Guide, which was
written by Joe Orlando under ASHRAE Research Project 737-RP and published in 1996. The
new design guide, re-titled “CHP Design Guide” will contain information on the emerging
industry trends and new technologies in the CHP area and will expand-on and update the
materials within the current edition. This project is to be completed in three phases: (1)
reviewing literature and collecting data within a wide field, including the studies made
by ASHRAE TRG 4 - Sustainable Building Guidance and Metrics (SBGM) - and other committees focused on carbon emissions, building metrics, and sustainability, and making a
re-collection of all such materials, complete with proper links and associative algorithms,
(2) revising the manuscript and incorporating the comments from the voting members
of the participating TCs and other experts in the field, and (3) reporting the results to
the ASHRAE membership.

1597-RP

Stochastic Control Optimization of Mixed-Mode Buildings

April 2010 – December 2013; University of Colorado – Boulder; Principal Investigator, Gregor Henze; TC 1.4, Control Theory
and Application

The primary purpose of heating, ventilating, and air-conditioning systems is to provide acceptable indoor air quality and thermal comfort. Mixed-mode ventilation systems
provide good indoor air quality and thermal climate using natural ventilation whenever
the outdoor weather conditions are favorable, but revert to mechanical systems for HVAC
whenever external conditions are too harsh. A mixed-mode building should switch between these two modes of operation according to seasonal and diurnal variations in the
indoor thermal conditions and the outdoor environment. Such a building requires an
intelligent control system that can switch automatically between natural and mechanical
modes in such a way that minimizes energy consumption without compromising indoor
air quality or the thermal comfort of its occupants.

1600-RP Methods-to Increase Maximum Velocity of Makeup Air for Atrium Smoke
Control CFD Study
June 2013 – December 2013; University of Maryland, Principal Investigators, Arnaud Trouve and James Milke; TC
5.6, Control of Fire and Smoke

Specifically, the proposed research would more thoroughly investigate the effects on the
fire and smoke layer when makeup air is supplied below the limiting elevation of the fire,
with the expectation that makeup air could be supplied in this region at velocities greater
than the current limits. Design tools (equations, graphs, models, etc.) that help designers
determine the effect of makeup air velocity and elevation on smoke layer height shall also
be developed. If these design tools are to be accepted for use in guidelines and standards,
they will need to be validated against full-scale experimental results. The main objective
of this project is to develop tools that can be used by smoke control system designers to
ASHRAE Journal - October 2013

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of ASHRAE Journal - October 2013
