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Comprehensive Study to Evaluate HVAC Systems and Envelope Performances

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Conference

2011 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Location

Vancouver, BC

Publication Date

June 26, 2011

Start Date

June 26, 2011

End Date

June 29, 2011

ISSN

2153-5965

Conference Session

Innovative Teaching Methods and Learning Models

Tagged Division

Division Experimentation & Lab-Oriented Studies

Page Count

15

Page Numbers

22.358.1 - 22.358.15

DOI

10.18260/1-2--17639

Permanent URL

https://peer.asee.org/17639

Download Count

403

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Paper Authors

biography

Ahmed Cherif Megri University of Wyoming

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Dr. Ahmed Cherif Megri, associate professor of architectural engineering at the University of Wyoming (UW), teaches several HVAC and energy courses. Dr. Megri is also teaching a course titled “Comprehensive Performance of Building Envelope and HVAC Systems” for Summer School at UW, and “Smoke and Fire Dynamics” during summer session at Concordia University, Canada. His research areas include airflow modeling, zonal modeling, energy modeling, and artificial intelligence modeling using the support vector machine learning approach.
Prior to his actual position at UW, he was an assistant professor and the director of Architectural Engineering Program at Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT). He was responsible for developing the current architectural engineering undergraduate and master’s programs at the Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT). During his stay at IIT, he taught fundamental engineering courses, such as thermodynamics and heat transfer, as well as design courses, such as HVAC, energy, plumbing, fire protection and lighting. Also, he supervise many courses in the frame of interprofessional projects program (IPRO).

In few months, Dr. Megri will defend his “Habilitation” (HDR) degree at Pierre and Marie Curie University - Paris VI, Sorbonne Universities.

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Abstract

Capstone Design: Comprehensive Study to Evaluate HVAC Systems and EnvelopePerformancesIn many states, local authorities and state officials spend significant amounts of money, time, andresources each winter to help low income families pay their heating bills. Many weatherizationprograms exist. However, these programs focus only on adding insulation and sealing major airleaks. Energy efficiency measures are applied with various degrees of comprehensiveness. Thecapstone design course objective is the conduction of a comprehensive study that includes:health, safety and indoor air quality, high priority energy and long-term efficiencies and comfort.The study conducted within the capstone course focus not only on the building envelope, butfocus on all components, such as furnaces, boilers, and fans that contribute to the improvedenergy performance of buildings.In this paper, we describe the comprehensive experimental study conducted by undergraduatestudents on a number of residential houses to improve the energy efficiency of these houses andidentify the most appropriate energy conservation measures. We describe the job performed bystudents starting from the building instrumentation, the measurement and the monitoring of theenergy consumption of the building systems, as well as the use of advanced energy simulationprograms such as, Visual-DOE, eQuest and EnergyPlus.In this paper, a number of experimental studies will also be demonstrated, such as duct blastertesting, blower door testing and infrared thermography and show how these techniques havebeen used to improve the students’ understanding of different concepts and techniques, such aspressurization, pressure and airflow measurements, duct and building leakages and tightness,temperature and humidity distribution within building envelop and HVAC systems.We discuss the capstone design program from students’ point of view, and the experience earnedin design, experimentation, and also in written and oral communication skills. Future plans toevaluate the effectiveness of this capstone in term of learning outcomes.

Megri, A. C. (2011, June), Comprehensive Study to Evaluate HVAC Systems and Envelope Performances Paper presented at 2011 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Vancouver, BC. 10.18260/1-2--17639

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