RESEARCH GRANT AWARD: Thermal Performance of Spandrel Assemblies in Glazing Systems Research Roadmap, Phase 1
The Charles Pankow Foundation is pleased to announce the award of a new research grant to Simpson Gumpertz & Heger Inc. (SGH) in support of a research collaboration with RDH Building Science Inc., and Morrison Hershfield (MH). The research is led by Co-Principal Investigators Vince Cammalleri (SGH), Stephane Hoffman (MH), and John Straube (RDH).
To improve state of practice for evaluating spandrel assembly thermal performance and enable innovation, there is a need for improved design guidelines to bring consistency to calculation methods, to identify opportunities to improve materials/details/systems, and to inform future code provisions.
This is Phase 1 of a four-phase research effort to produce a Design Guidance Document. Phase 1 - Design Test Program jump starts this effort by conducting a literature search of available information on the topic, a survey of stakeholders to understand the scope and prevalence of different spandrel systems, an energy study, a Computational Fluids Dynamics analysis to explore cavity airflow impacts as well as the specification of the test program to be conducted in subsequent phases.
Providing invaluable insights to the research team are the industry champions Glenn Bell, consultant, Tom Culp of Birchpoint Consulting and experts from the Department of Energy, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, and Oak Ridge National Laboratory.
This work is performed under the research grant award no. 04-22.