Design and Performance Evaluation of Building Integrated Solar Technology for Greywater Recycling and Thermal Gain

Developing sustainable building technologies to confront the growing pressure of/nessential resource scarcity is an important task for civil and environmental/nengineers in the 21st century. This dissertation describes the design,/nexperimentation, and performance modeling of a multi-physics, building integrated,/nsolar-powered panel system for on-site greywater recycling and thermal gain for/ninterior climate conditioning. The hybrid CORE (Cylindrical Optical Reactive/nCylinders) panel type is novel in itself, using wave-guides to support titania/nphotocatalyst and distribute UV light for inactivation and mineralization of/ncontaminants, which has not been studied to date, particularly in a multi-scale/nformat./nSeveral research directions are detailed, from determining the potential for/ninterception mechanics in the cylinder bank of waveguides, to the use of/nmathematical optimization for performance analysis. In chapter II, Finite Element/nAnalysis on the micro-scale is used to develop a new correlation for particle capture/nof cylinder banks in non-creeping laminar flow. In chapter III laboratory/nexperimentation on a CORE prototype is detailed in order to estimate reaction rates/nunder solar conditions and determine the efficacy of the optical waveguides for/nstimulating mass transfer in a turbid medium. In chapter IV the NSGA-II algorithm/nfor multi-objective optimization is employed to assess the influence of multiple/nparameters on the mass and heat transfer performance of the panel./nA novel correlation for particle interception in cylinder banks at moderate flow is/ngiven, as well as a simplifying rule of thumb for engineering design purposes./nHowever, it is also shown that particle interception does not contribute/nmeaningfully to disinfection in the CORE panel. The reaction rate for the CORE/npanel type is determined in the lab: the results show pseudo-zero order kinetics and/nan over all slow reaction proportional to the Reynolds number on the order of 1e-4./nA correlation for reaction potential of individual cylinders developed via Chilton-/nColburn analogy from Žukauskas’ work on heat transfer in cylinder banks is shown/nto compare well with the experimental results, matching exactly at Re 350. It is also/nshown that the photocatalytic response is predominantly due to the effect of/nwaveguide UV transmission./nThe performance evaluation of the CORE panel in the pilot scale simulation in/nBerkeley, CA. using the NSGA-II genetic algorithm for the multi-objective studies on/nefficiency and output showed tendency for maximizing cylinder diameter and thus/nsolid fraction, tilt generally pushed towards a 45 tilt from the vertical, and that/nCORE could function with a relatively thin over all profile of about 5cm. The/nmaximum daily output of recycled greywater for a 1m2 panel over a year was 87L, a/nrelevant contribution to reuse of an individual’s daily grey water production. The/npanel system functions best as building added system on the roof, but could function/nas building integrated with specific modifications to the catalyst to increase/nphotosensitization. Further research is required in the direction of multi-parameter/noptimization both to incorporate more parameters and design constraints (such as/nthe effect of flow rate and solid fraction on energy return) and as a design tool to/nestimate context dependent design requirements.

Advisor: Hermanowicz, Slawomir W