Anna Dyson

Controlled Crumpling of Graphene Oxide Films for Tunable Optical Transmittance

The delamination buckling approach provides a facile means to dynamically control the optical transmittance of extremely flexible and stretchable graphene oxide coatings with fast response time. Such graphene oxide coatings can be deposited by scalable solution-processing methods for potential applications in dynamic glazing.

A Computational Design Framework Supporting Human Interaction with Environmentally-Responsive Building Envelopes

Emerging materials present opportunities to fundamentally shift current expectations of dynamic building envelope functionality towards systems that can respond to occupant needs while meeting the energy demands of buildings. In order to assess the environmental, social, and architectural opportunities that are increasing with responsive building envelopes, new tools are needed to simulate their multi-performance capabilities. This paper describes a computational design framework to support human interaction with environmentally-responsive electroactive dynamic daylighting systems. The objective is to develop algorithms for variable solar control and visible transmittance that simultaneously address occupant preferences for visual effects and interaction. Results demonstrate that energy performance and user satisfaction are not mutually exclusive and can be co-optimized. The effectiveness and limitations of the computational framework in assessing strategies to balance environmental performance and human interaction are discussed. Conclusions present areas of ongoing work that integrate multi-user interactions and immersive visualization techniques with multiscalar energy modeling tools.

Interactive Visualization for Interdisciplinary Research.

Studies show that many multi-scalar research problems cannot easily be addressed from the confines of individual disciplines for they require the participation of many experts, each viewing the problem from their distinctive disciplinary perspective. The bringing together of disparate experts or fields of expertise is known as interdisciplinary research. The benefit of such an approach is that discourse and collaboration among experts in distinct fields can generate new insights to the research problem at hand. With this approach comes large amounts of multivariate data and understanding the possible relationships between variables and their corresponding relevance to the problem is in itself a challenge. One of the most valuable means through which to comprehend big data and make it more approachable, is through data visualization. This paper presents a trial to encompass an interdisciplinary research centers collaborators, experiments, and results, and represent them simultaneously through the use of a high-resolution visualization. Multiple studies on how best to visualize the multivalent parameters of interdisciplinary work are discussed, highlighting how the use of an interactive data-driven documents (D3) visualization is proving very useful in managing and analyzing the interdisciplinary work of the center in the pursuit of common research goals.

Dynamic window daylighting systems: electropolymeric technology for solar responsive building envelopes

Human health and energy problems associated with the lack of control of sunlight in contemporary buildings have necessitated research into dynamic windows for energy efficient buildings. Existing window technologies have made moderate progress towards greater energy performance for facades but remain limited in their response to dynamic solar conditions, building energy requirements, and variable user preferences for visual comfort. Recent developments in electropolymeric display technology provide opportunities to transfer electroactive polymers to windows that can achieve high levels of geometric and spectral selectivity through the building envelope in order to meet the lighting, thermal and user requirements of occupied spaces. Experimental simulations that investigate daylight quality, energy performance, and architectural effects of electropolymeric glazing technology are presented.

Performance criteria for dynamic window systems using nanostructured behaviors for energy harvesting and environmental comfort

Contemporary commercial building types continue to incorporate predominantly glazed envelope systems, despite the associated challenges with thermal regulation, visual comfort, and increased energy consumption. The advantage of window systems that could adaptively respond to changes in the environment while meeting variable demands for building energy use and occupant comfort has led to considerable investment towards the advancement of dynamic window technologies. Although these technologies demonstrate cost warranting improvements in building energy performance, they face challenges with visible clarity, color variability and response time. Furthermore, they remain challenged with respect to their ability to adequately control important qualitative criteria for daylighting such as glare and balanced light redistribution within occupied spaces. The material dependent limitations of advanced glazing technologies have initiated a search for new thin film solutions, with new device possibilities emerging across many fields. Idealized window performance has traditionally been defined as the dynamic control of solar transmittance, glare, solar gain and daylighting at any time to manage energy, comfort and view. However, in the context of wider goals towards building energy self-sufficiency through the achievement of on-site net zero energy, emerging material systems point towards other physical phenomena for achieving transparency modulation and energy harvesting, demanding a broader range of criteria for advanced glazing controls that allow the glazed building envelope to exist as a transfer function that can address and potentially accommodate the following five principal criteria: 1. Thermal management; 2. Daylighting harvesting and modulation; 3. Maintenance of views; 4. Active power capture, transfer, storage and redistribution; 5. Information Display. Building upon the existing set of performance requirements for high-performance glazing, this paper prescribes additional system functions using nano-structured behaviors operating within insulated glazing units (IGU) for energy harvesting opportunities and increased environmental comfort. Specifically, the proposed goal is to incorporate multiple functions that span energy performance with culturally valuable attributes such as variable patterning and information display.

An experimental design framework for the personalization of indoor microclimates through feedback loops between responsive thermal systems and occupant biometrics

How can building technologies accommodate different and often conflicting user preferences without dissolving the social cohesiveness, intrinsic of every architectural intervention? Individual thermal comfort has often been considered a negligible sensorial experience by modern heating and cooling technologies, and is often influenced by large-group norms. Alternatively, we propose that buildings are repositories of indoor microclimates that can be realized to provide personalized comfort, to create healthier environments, and to enhance the attributes of architectural interventions into haptic dimensions. In response, the goal of this study is to characterize an experimental framework that integrates responsive thermal systems with occupants’ direct and indirect experience, which includes stress response and biometric data. A computational model was used up to inform and analyze thermal perception of subjects, and later tested in a responsive physical installation. While results show that thermal comfort assessment is affected by individual differences including cognitive functions and biometrics, further computational efforts are needed to validate biometric indicators. Finally, the implications of personalized built environments are discussed with respect to future technology developments and possibilities of design driven by biometric data.

High Efficiency Solar Building Envelopes for Integrated Delivery of Environmental Control Systems

Efficacious delivery of power requirements for all environmental control systems is demonstrated through an optically transparent solar building envelope that modulates daylight, intercepts solar heat gain, while delivering electricity and high quality heat towards applications. Abstract (35 Word Limit): Efficacious delivery of power requirements for all environmental control systems is demonstrated through an optically transparent solar building envelope that modulates daylight, intercepts solar heat gain, while delivering electricity and high quality heat towards applications. Article not available.