AMBER Lab

The AMBER Lab consists of three labs: Environmental Chamber, Mass Timber Field Lab, Extreme Roofing Lab

Environmental Chamber

The chamber serves as a piece of equipment that provides specific environmental conditions necessary for ventilation experiments, indoor air quality assessments, thermal performance of wall assemblies, and environmental perceptions of occupants. Fig. 2 shows an experimental arrangement for different wall panels with phase change materials.

Some of the chamber’s unique characteristics include:

• Supply airflow rate range of 50–900 cfm that is possible by using very frequency drives (VFD) in the supply and return fans
• Percent of outdoor air: 0–100%
• Hydronic wall system: 1.6 kW glycol wall on one 18-ft wall with its own dedicated cooling and heating system
• Control system: able to communicate with MATLAB and EnergyPlus via Modbus RTU communication
• Chamber: controlled with a 6-core workstation

The chamber also has a Haiku bidirectional ceiling fan with a remote control. This allows us to simulate spaces with a ceiling fan and/or study the airflow impacts ceiling fans produce. Fig 3. shows an AMBER research study in which airflow inside the chamber was analyzed at different ceiling fan speeds.

Fig. 3: Bidirectional ceiling fan and experimental setup to measure air flow

Mass Timber Field Lab

The Mass Timber Field Lab is used the demonstrate the potential performance of cross-laminated timber (CLT) buildings in comparison to light-weight framed buildings. The lab consist of two 8’x 8’x 10’ cubes that are scale versions of a full size building. The cubes allow for field studies of two identical buildings at scale, exposed to actual current climate conditions. The walls, floor, and ceiling of the wood CLT cube are all solid 5-ply CLT plates while the second cube is built like a typical light-weight building using stud framed walls (similar to the walls of a house). Each cube utilizes its own mini-split heating and cooling system to regulate their indoor environments. The Mass Timber Field Lab is one of three sets of cubes and is a part of a larger national study in partnership with Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

Extreme Roofing Lab

The chamber al