Project Team
Students
Travis Peters
Chemical Engineering
Penn State Harrisburg
Faculty Mentors
Shirley Clark
Penn State Harrisburg
Civil Engineering
Farrah Moazeni
Penn State Harrisburg
Civil Engineering
Rachel Brennan
Penn State University Park
Civil & Environmental Engineering
Project
https://sites.psu.edu/mcreu/files/formidable/2/MCREU-Poster-2021.pdf
Project Video
Project Abstract
Travis Peters
University Park, Penn State Harrisburg
Chemical Engineering
Dr. Shirley Clark (Harrisburg) , Dr. Faegheh Moazeni (Harrisburg)
Joury Almoslem
Analyzing Drainage Effects on Heat Transfer through a Crumb Rubber Media for Green Roofs
Green roofs are proposed as potential solution to reducing annual energy costs in buildings. The current standard for the inorganic component of green roof media is expanded shale, which is costly to the environment to produce. Therefore, a recyclable/recycled material would be an ideal candidate to take its place, if it offers the same energy savings. While green roof heat transfer has been well studied, there have been no studies that monitor the incorporation of a recyclable material such as crumb rubber into the media, so understanding the heat transfer through this media will help in determining its potential as a substitute for expanded shale. To study this media’s heat transfer, a simulated green roof without vegetation has been set up in the Penn State Harrisburg laboratory. Reptilian heat lamps act as sunlight. Temperature probes are installed at various layers within both conventional and crumb rubber media. During these laboratory simulations, the media can be subjected to various conditions such as being saturated with or draining out water as well as different amounts of exposure to sunlight and different wattages of sunlight. The data is still currently being processed to see how the crumb rubber performs with these varying conditions and then simulating how this would translate to energy savings. The initial results shows that the drainage pattern in the crumb rubber will affect heat retention at the surface with hot crumb rubber transferring heat to the water and the hotter water helping retain heat. This difference in drainage is not seen at a depth of six inches. The conventional media because of its addition of soil to the expanded shale has lower maximum temperatures. The results from the conventional media highlight the impact of an organic component that will retain water and that may have a lower heat capacity. Depending on the analysis of the performance of the crumb rubber media, this will provide a recyclable effective media that allows for continuous positive effects of green roof implantation on energy savings and therefore carbon output. Future testing will include installing test pads outside and planting vegetation to understand the impacts of growing vegetation on heat transfer.
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