From blueprints to green buildings

Portland State’s engineering department recently received funding from the Oregon University System, Oregon BEST and the James F. and Marion L. Miller Foundation for a new laboratory to research sustainable buildings.

An open house for the lab was held Sep. 14, 2009.

Housed in the Maseeh College of Engineering building on Southwest Fourth Avenue and College Street, the new Green Building Research Lab examines the impact of buildings on the urban environment.

The engineering building itself is Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design certified, featuring geothermal heating and cooling, and storm water collected from the roof used to flush toilets.

According to Oikos, a green building news Web site, the lab “positions the state to establish a research center of national prominence, and offer Oregon’s green building businesses access to advanced research tools, expertise and better trained employees.”

The aim of the new lab is to enhance students’ interaction with the growing green-building industry and establish Oregon as a leader in this technology.

The lab will include sensing and logging monitors for indoor environmental quality and tracking capabilities that determine how buildings respond to varying conditions, including how occupant behavior affects building energy use.

“The lab provides opportunities across the spectrum for students, faculty, industry and the community to be involved with and benefit from applied research into enhancing the energy and environmental performance of buildings,” said David Sailor, associate professor of mechanical and materials engineering.

Sailor explained that the lab has several elements to its mission. Among them is to facilitate research for the development and testing of new technologies used in high-performance buildings and to apply this research to the industry of green buildings.

As an industry resource, it serves as a lending laboratory where partners can borrow equipment for monitoring performance of indoor environment and building systems. As an educational resource, it serves as a hands-on laboratory for use in courses within the building sciences focuses of Portland State’s engineering and architecture departments.

Typical projects will include evaluations of thermal performance of phase-change materials for use in buildings, using infrared cameras to assess thermal bridging problems in buildings and monitoring the performance of super-insulated “passive house” buildings, Sailor said.

An engineering course, ME423: Fundamentals of Building Science, will be taught in the lab during winter term 2010. It will also accommodate some advanced courses in architecture.

The Green Building Resource Lab has a few ongoing projects, including monitoring studies in a super-insulated building, green roof performance and indoor environmental quality measurements with several local schools.

The engineering department is also working with the School of Chemical, Biological and Environmental Engineering at Oregon State University to characterize radioactive properties of materials they are developing for photovoltaic energy generation.

The lab provides a research model for the state that will boost the local economy, facilitate engineering education and, ultimately, will provide jobs.