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ZEB
annual report 2015
A
rild Gustavsen (NTNU) and Terje Jacobsen (SINTEF)
Good laboratory facilities are important for
research, development, and improvement
of sustainable buildings and building
technologies. ZEB has built new laboratory
facilities and improved existing laboratories
at NTNU and SINTEF during its seven years
of existence. Building materials, building
assemblies, building services, interaction
between building services and building
materials, building integrated energy supply
systems, and building-grid interaction can
now be investigated. These facilities have
been made available to researchers and the
building industry and are helping to speed up
the development of sustainable solutions for
the building industry. The following examples
present some of the experimental facilities that
are available, including some laboratories built
before the ZEB Centre was established.
Materials, building assemblies, and
building services
Building materials, building assemblies and
building services are important parts of a
building. Each component needs to be of good
quality for the building to function well as a
whole. NTNU and SINTEF have extensive
facilities for investigating the strengths
and weaknesses of building materials and
components. Some examples are FTIR
spectrometers, hot plate apparatus for
measuring thermal conductivity, hot box for
the measurement of thermal transmittance
(U-value), and climate chambers for
measuring the hygrothermal properties of
building materials and assemblies. Climate
simulators are available for measuring air
and water tightness as well as building
material durability. Experiments can be
performed under constant and dynamic
boundary conditions, and the influence of
solar radiation can also be investigated. The
indoor environment generated using different
ventilation strategies and components can be
investigated in a test room. The performance
of advanced heat exchangers for air handling
units can be tested in dedicated rigs. In
addition, a facility has been developed to
investigate control strategies for sub-stations
in district heating systems.
Contact: Terje Jacobsen and Hans Martin
Mathisen.
ZEB Test Cell Laboratory
The laboratory equipment mentioned
and shown above utilizes a controlled
environment on both sides of the sample, i.e.
both an indoor and outdoor climate may be
simulated. This is important for evaluating
building components under standardized
conditions, e.g. rating and comparison of
building components such as windows
NECESSARY TOOLS FOR SUSTAINABLE BUILDING DEVELOPMENT
SENTRALE REDSKAPER FOR UTVIKLINGAV BÆREKRAFTIGE BYGNINGER