Progress 03/01/09 to 03/01/13
Outputs
OUTPUTS: In addition to those listed in previous reports, project results were disseminated through presentations at scientific conferences, as listed below: S. Gilliam, J. Aycock, S. Dasmohapatra, and D. Tilotta, "Observing Physical Properties of OSB Panels in Diesel Contaminated Water," 66th FPS Meeting, Washington DC, June 3, 2012; D. Tilotta, "Mold and Moisture in Homes," Engineered Wood Flooring Workshop, Charleston, SC, September 12, 2011; D.C. Tilotta, "Resilient Homes, Incentives, and What We're Learning," Building Resilience Workshop II: New Orleans," March 17-19, 2011, Invited; D.C. Tilotta "Mold and Moisture in Homes," Engineered Wood Flooring Workshop, Raleigh, NC, October 7, 2010; Strayhorn, T., Tilotta, D., Mitchell, P., Dasmohapatra, S. "Resilient Home Education and Outreach: Assessing the Effectiveness of Different Media Types," 64th Annual Forest Products Society Meeting, Madison, WI, June 22, 2010. In addition to those listed in previous reports, the following students graduated from NC State University during the reporting period: O. Bencze (Ph.D.), Steven Pires (M.S.), Adrian Pirraglia (Ph.D.), Tyler Strayhorn (M.S.). PARTICIPANTS: Principal investigators: Perry Peralta, Sudipta Dasmohapatra; Collaborators: Ilona Peszlen, Daniel Saloni, Richard Lemaster, David Tilotta. TARGET AUDIENCES: Nothing significant to report during this reporting period. PROJECT MODIFICATIONS: Nothing significant to report during this reporting period.
Impacts
Research conducted (in addition to those previously reported): (1) Development of a Certification Program for Natural Disaster Resilient Homes. This research consisted of 3 studies. The first study was a survey of public perception of housing resilience to natural disasters. More than 90% of the respondents thought that homeowners need to be better educated on natural disaster resilience of homes. In the second study, Resilient Scoring Utility (ReScU), a rating system for the resilience of homes against natural disaster perils was developed. ReScU features: a) an output system that can be tied to incentives, b) the use of performance-based evaluation criteria for home resilience, c) utilization of "threshold" adjustments to represent location of homes, and d) adaptability to new technologies. In the third study, a preliminary scoring mechanism for homes using the ReScU system was developed. This scoring mechanism can be used by stakeholders to rate homes based on design, material and construction details as indicated in the performance-based inventories. (2) Modeling the hygrothermal performance of selected North American and comparable European wood-frame house walls. Analysis showed that the European wall has better thermal performance mainly because of the heat-insulating ability of the expanded polystyrene (EPS) layer. However, when the EPS was reduced to the same thickness as the siding used in American construction, the thermal performance of the European wall did not fare any better than the American structure. The resistance of the European wall to moisture damage was also better than the American walls. One reason for this is the high diffusion resistance of the EPS. But this same high diffusion resistance works to the detriment of an Exterior Insulation Finish System (EIFS) wall if water is able to infiltrate the structure. (3) Resilience in Homes: Evaluation of Materials and Educational Tools for Natural Disasters. A two phase approach was adopted. The first phase examined the effectiveness of 3 educational tools for hurricane resilience in homes: pulp board coasters, tri-fold pamphlets, and a web hosted video. Analysis of focus groups indicated that: media use is highly dependent on the target audience; the pamphlet was preferred aesthetically and was most likely to be used by homeowners; tool usefulness depends on the ease of understanding of the best practices and ease of access to the tools. The second phase evaluated the effectiveness and resilience of Oriented Strandboard (OSB) as a construction material following flood conditions. Test variables included flood water type, time, and panel variability. Mechanical properties for panels submerged in both potable and salt water decreased with time of submersion of the samples for all manufacturers. Significant losses in mechanical properties were seen in the first 24 hours of submersion due to absorption of water and subsequent swelling in the structure of the wood. Salt contaminated water submerged samples degraded significantly less than their potable water soaked counterparts due to a lower amount of water absorption caused by the PH and salts in the water.
Publications
- Bencze, O., S. Dasmohapatra, D. C. Tilotta. 2012. A Performance-Based Rating System for Home Resilience: The ReScU Concept. International Journal of Natural Disaster Resilience in the Built Environment 3(2): 148-165.
- Bencze, O. 2011. The Development of a Certification Program for Natural Disaster Resilient Homes. Ph.D. Dissertation under the direction of D. Tilotta and S. Dasmohapatra. Forest Biomaterials, NC State University.
- Pasztory, Z., P.N. Peralta, I. Peszlen. 2011. Multi-layer heat insulation system for frame construction buildings. Energy and Buildings 43(2-3): 713-717.
- Pasztory, Z., P.N. Peralta, S. Molnar, I. Peszlen. 2012. Modeling the hygrothermal performance of selected North American and comparable European wood-frame house walls. Energy and Buildings 49: 142-147.
- Strayhorn, T., S. Dasmohapatra, D. C. Tilotta, P.M. Mitchell. 2012. Effectiveness of Education Tools for Hurricane Resilience in Homes. Journal of Disaster Prevention and Management 21(4): 433-444.
- Strayhorn, T. 2011. Resilience in Homes: Evaluation of Materials and Educational Tools for Natural Disasters. M.S. Thesis under the direction of S. Dasmohapatra and D. Tilotta. Forest Biomaterials, NC State University.
- VanDyk, H., G. J. Velarde, and R. L. Lemaster. 2013. Assessment of positive air flow remediation techniques to suppress mold formation in residential wall cavities. Submitted, Forest Products Journal.
- Velarde, G., D. Saloni, R. Lemaster, S. Jackson. 2013. Improving Housing Conditions from the Crawl Space up with a Monitoring and Control System. Submitted, Journal of Building Physics
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Progress 01/01/10 to 12/31/10
Outputs
OUTPUTS: Project results were disseminated through presentations at scientific conferences, as listed below: Velarde, G., H. van Dyk, D. Saloni, and R. Lemaster. 2010. Housing elements research chamber: A new testing facility - A crawl space study. SPHE National Conference. Cincinnati, OH. October 2010. The following students graduated from NC State University during this reporting period: Javon Carter (M.S.), Laszlo Horvath (Ph.D.). The following students were trained under this project during this reporting period: Orsolya Bencze (Ph.D. student), Javon Carter (M.S. student), Judith Gisip (Ph.D. student), Ronalds Gonzalez (Ph.D. student), Laszlo Horvath (Ph.D. student), Steven Pires (M.S. student), Adrian Pirraglia (Ph.D. student), Tyler Strayhorn (M.S. student), Guillermo Velarde (Ph.D. student), Curtis Watkins (M.S. student) PARTICIPANTS: Nothing significant to report during this reporting period. TARGET AUDIENCES: Nothing significant to report during this reporting period. PROJECT MODIFICATIONS: Nothing significant to report during this reporting period.
Impacts
Research work in the following areas were conducted: (1). Design, development, and verification of a housing elements research chamber by means of a monitoring and control system. Moisture from the crawl space of a house can be a major source of water that can damage homes and result in health and safety problems, maintenance and durability issues, and increased utility bills. Studies regarding moisture in crawl spaces are divided in the ones that suggest to have closed crawl spaces and the ones that suggest having open vented ones. Additional crawl space moisture research is needed to design a system to monitoring and control moisture. The research objective is to develop and build a monitoring and control system based on temperature and relative humidity sensors. This will enable us to understand the interactions between three main housing areas (outdoor, indoor, and crawlspaces). The monitor system will be used to test several alternatives to reducing the humidity conditions of the crawl space environment. The designed system allows controlling and reducing the risk of high temperature and humidity conditions that can cause mold. (2). Drying system for residential walls. Research has shown that ventilation is the best method to remove unwanted water in the home; however, water located inside of residential wall cavities can be difficult to remove. Compressed air was attached to the wall cavity of a wall model to create air flow and remove water. Several experiments were conducted to both investigate the response of the wall model to compressed air, and to investigate water loss. The results indicate that as the distance from the air source increased, the rate of circulation decreased. Insulation, pressure, and time, influence the amount of water removed. With no insulation in the wall model and at 10 psi, 100 % of the water was removed in four hours. With insulation and at 20 psi, 93 % of the water was removed in four hours. Results indicate that there was no difference in water loss with respect to pressure, and that most of the water removed over the four hour period was achieved during the first hour. (3). Multi-layer heat insulation system for frame construction buildings. In this research, insulation panels with multilayer, low-emissivity aluminum-polyethylene sheets were prepared and investigated. The results of the study showed that surface emissivity and convection currents have important influence on heat flow. The aluminum-polyethylene sheets were effective in reflecting heat and reducing heat transfer by radiation. They also divided the air space in the insulation system, resulting in the reduction of convection currents and convection heat transfer. Heat conduction was not increased by micro heat bridges, resulting in lower effective thermal conductivity than the commonly used insulation materials. The connection between heat resistance and the number of sheets was not linear. The first inserted sheet had the highest effect and each additional sheet had less influence on heat resistance.
Publications
- Velarde, Guillermo J. 2010. Design, Development, and Verification of a Housing Elements Research Chamber by means of a Monitoring and Control System. Project report, Masters of Integrated Manufacturing Engineering. NC State University, Raleigh, NC.
- Camarillo, Matthew Lee. 2010. Investigation into a drying system for Residential Walls. MS thesis in Wood Products. NC State University, Raleigh, NC.
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Progress 01/01/09 to 12/31/09
Outputs
OUTPUTS: Project results were disseminated through presentations at scientific conferences, as listed below: Velarde, G., D. Saloni, H. van Dyk and M Giunta. 2009. Process improvement on a modular home manufacturer by simulation techniques and lean manufacturing tools. SPHE National Conference. Washington, DC. October 2009. The following students graduated from NC State University during this reporting period: Rafael Arrieche (M.S.), Matt Camarillo (M.S.), Adam Delwiche (MWPS), Balazs Horvath (Ph.D.), Eric Lawson (MWPS), Jason Tolar (MWPS), Guillermo Velarde (IMSE Master) PARTICIPANTS: Principal investigators: Perry Peralta, Sudipta Dasmohapatra; Collaborators:Ilona Peszlen, Daniel Saloni, Richard Lemaster, David Tilotta. The following students were trained under this project: Rafael Arrieche (M.S. student), Orsolya Bencze (Ph.D. student), Matt Camarillo ( M.S. student), Adam Delwiche (MWPS student), Judith Gisip (Ph.D. student), Ronalds Gonzalez (Ph.D. student), Balazs Horvath (Ph.D. student), Laszlo Horvath (Ph.D. student), Eric Lawson (MWPS student), Adrian Pirraglia (Ph.D. student), Tyler Strayhorn (M.S. student), Jason Tolar (MWPS student), Guillermo Velarde (Ph.D. student), Curtis Watkins (M.S. student) TARGET AUDIENCES: Nothing significant to report during this reporting period. PROJECT MODIFICATIONS: Nothing significant to report during this reporting period.
Impacts
Research work in the following areas were conducted: (1) the development of wood composites using nonwoven textile technologies. A needle-punched wood-fiber/bicomponent-fiber composite was manufactured and then tested for mechanical and physical properties. Bending and tensile properties of the composite were assessed and compared with medium-density fiberboard (MDF). An average increase in storage modulus of 40 percent was observed for the 640-kg/m3 panel and 48 percent for the 550-kg/m3 panels. A mean longitudinal tensile modulus of 923 MPa was measured for the laminate panels. This is an improvement in tensile modulus of elasticity of almost 34 percent over the wood-fiber core material. (2) the use of lean manufacturing tools in housing. A simulation model using lean manufacturing philosophy was developed to improve the flow of modular housing manufacturing operation. Results showed that the approach can increase the production level by 40 percent, and that labor and operational costs can be reduced considerably. (3) resilient homes. Several studies in the area of resilient homes were carried out including the completion of a gap analysis that identified research and education needs in residential housing, the development of a rating system for home resilience, identification of effective media for educating stakeholders in preparing their homes for natural disasters, and the development of technologies that can facilitate recovery from natural disasters.
Publications
- Pirraglia, A., D. Saloni and H. van Dyk. 2009. Status of Lean Manufacturing Implementation on Secondary Wood Industries including Residential, Cabinet, Millwork and Panel Markets. Journal of BioResources 4(4): 1341-1358
- van Dyk, H., P.N. Peralta, I. Peszlen, and P. Banks-Lee. 2009. An Innovative Wood-Fiber Composite Incorporating Nonwoven Textile Technologies. Forest Products Journal 59(11/12):11-17
- Velarde, G., D. Saloni, H. van Dyk and M. Giunta. 2009. Process flow improvement proposal using lean manufacturing philosophy and simulation techniques on modular home manufacturer. Lean Construction Journal. 1(1): 77-93
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