A series of reduced-scale experiments were carried out in order to investigate thermal behaviors of the flame/plume ejected from a mechanically air-supplied fire compartment. The purpose of this study is to develop a rational method for predicting risks of the building-to-building fire spread caused by window flames, in which the wind often intensifies its hazard by elevating the compartment pressure. A stainless vessel filled with alcohol fuel was placed inside a reduced-scale compartment, which has an opening on one side and a mechanical air-supply opening on the opposing side. Temperatures and velocities at various points inside and outside of the compartment were measured. Following the experimental observation, line heat-source assumption was adopted, which characterizes the flame/plume behaviors in two-dimension. A dimensionless parameter Q' was derived from the governing differential equations, in order to generalize the measurement results. Reasonable correlations were achieved, and expressions for temperature rise along the trajectory line ΔT_m and characteristic flame/plume width b_T are deduced.

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In order to clarify the current situation on classroom acoustics for hearing impaired students, we performed a survey through nationwide questionnaires and acoustic measurement in elementary and junior high schools. First, the nationwide questionnaires for teachers revealed their awareness to classroom acoustics, diversity of architectural specification of classrooms, and a variety of sounds interfering with students' hearing. Secondly, acoustic measurement was performed at 6 typical schools, which were selected on account of architectural specification and construction age. It showed the distribution of acoustic performance of special instruction rooms and normal classrooms regarding reverberation time, sound insulation between rooms, and indoor ambient noise. Finally, we discussed the measured results in comparison with the standards recommended by overseas governments and AIJ.

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Estimation technique of aerodynamic sound radiation from a cylindrical body using results of partial-span CFD computation is presented. The technique replaces the calculation of Curie equation in Lighthill-Curle computational aeroacoustics technique, and is based on Morse-Ingard's and Goldstein's theory and coherence model function. The validation of the model function and the technique through wind-tunnel experiment results 1) measured coherence between surface fluid forces on the body surface shows good agreement with the model function, and 2) reasonable agreement is obtained between measured SPL at a receiving point and estimated SPL using the technique.

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This paper shows a method of producing the Typical Annual Weather Data (TWD9302/L) and its application to daylighting simulation. Long-term observation data were obtained in Chofu-city, Tokyo from 1993 to 2002 in conformity to the International Daylight Measurement Programme. TWD9302/L contains air temperature, absolute humidity, illuminance, and so on, at interval of one minute, and sky luminance distribution and sky radiance distribution at interval of 30minutes, so it makes it possible to simulate both lighting and thermal annual environment. The methods of complementing the sky luminance around the sun influenced the daylighting simulation results at about 2% on the average.

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The purpose of this paper is to offer the specific data for calculating the amount of heat exchange between the human body and environments by radiative heat transfer. The total body surface area was measured. Radiative heat transfer areas of the naked human body for the following nine body postures were measured: standing, chair sitting, seiza sitting, cross-legged sitting, sideway sitting, both-knees-erect sitting, leg-out sitting, lateral and supine postures. The results showed that the radiative heat transfer area of the naked human body in the standing posture was 0.773, the chair sitting posture was 0.732, the seiza sitting posture was 0.621, the cross-legged sitting posture was 0.606, the sideway sitting posture was 0.634, the both-knees-erect sitting posture was 0.609, the leg-out sitting posture was 0.686, the lateral posture was 0.712 and the supine posture was 0.708. The radiative heat transfer areas of the naked human body showed clearly that it is strongly influenced in the postures.

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A wind tunnel with a full-scale building model (5.56m×5.56m×3m) was constructed with particular purposes related to the development of wind-driven ventilation design. The research plan with the facility is briefly described, and the measurement results for the three-dimensional airflow around the building and the wind pressure on its walls and roof are shown for different wind angles between 0°to 75°. The detailed airflow near the surface of the building (in a distance of 5cm) is also shown. The wind pressure distributions for 0°and 45°wind angles are compared with existing results from a wind tunnel with a scale model, and from the field measurement with a full-scale model. These measurement results show the detailed characteristics of the facility, as a basis of the analysis in succeeding different experiments.

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In this research we will propose an operational method for improving the efficiency of water-cooled packaged air conditioning systems. Water-cooled packaged air conditioners are installed at large-scale communication facilities and data centers. In the past, efforts were made to improve the efficiency of air-cooled packaged air conditioners using technologies that operated the air conditioners in low compression ration regions. By applying these technologies to water-cooled packaged air conditioners, we have succeeded in improving the efficiency of the refrigeration cycle. It is still necessary, however, to reduce the power consumption of the cooling tower and cooling pump in order to improve the efficiency of the air conditioning system as a whole. In this paper, we conducted system simulations, and calculated efficiency over one year. Based on the results of these simulations, we expect to be able to improve efficiency by about 10% at 30% partial load by minimizing the repetition of start/stop operations in the cooling tower.

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According to the decline in the farming population, reservoirs are likely to lose its values. The values of reservoirs are not only for farming but also as a place of recreation, as a place for the natural creatures, and so on. This study takes a place in Saijo area of Higashihiroshima City where paddy fields and mountains are mostly found. The analysis is done by the comparison of the results of questionnaire survey on the reservoirs done in 1984 and 2003. The purpose of this study is to clarify the change of the consciousness structure to evaluate reservoirs by the inhabitants, since 1984, in Saijo area. As a result of this study, the factors that are to affect the inhabitants' satisfaction and recreational behavior are clarified.

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This research was performed on methods to promote integration between urban and rural sectors in the San En Nan Shin region using an Urban-Rural Linkage Model that investigates social surplus maximization, effects of introducing an environmental tax, and transport cost minimization due to land use transformation in a fallow agricultural region. Land use transformation was studied in terms of (1) an economic priority model,(2) an environmental harmonization model, and (3) a balanced model. Economic and environmental outcomes including the impact on price from the environmental tax were quantitatively analyzed for each case.

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Shinto shrines are established as sacred places that have historically been preserved together with their natural settings. These include from the small scale settings such as a grove isolated in a residential district or a paddy field, to the large scale ones as forests. This study focused on forests surrounding Shinto shrines that had been protected as the areas of cultural properties in Kyoto. As a result, it was found that the landscape was determined by how natural trees had been preserved with afforested trees for regular maintenance of shrines and also for solemnity as a sacred place. The warmth index could clearly predict the type of natural trees in Keidai surrounding shrine architectures, and suitable trees were found for either warm or cool temperature condition. Such a way to preserve natural trees in landscape of a shrine could become a paradigm for ensuring preservation of environment as far as daily human life was closely involved in landscape constitution at sacred places.

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The purposes of this study are: 1) to estimate transpiration rate of trees using stomatal conductance on leaves of the deciduous tree. 2) to simulate the climatic mitigation effect of transpiration in an area around a residential complex with Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) method using a model in which stomal conductance is incorporated. Five parameters in the stomatal conductance model were determined with a nonlinear least-squares method using the measured stem flow of the deciduos tree. The simulated results agreed well with the measured results. In this paper, it is proposed that CFD methods using a stomatal conductance model can be applied to a simulation of climate mitigation effect by variations in transpiration rate of trees around a residential complex.

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In this study, we propose a method for constructing an estimation model at the early stage of the building project which attains high accuracy and is robust. In the proposed method, the prediction accuracy is improved over the conventional method by focusing on the outliers and modifying the outliers's data when building the prediction model. More concretely, applying the so-called Winsorization mean and the trimmed mean which are known as statistical methods, the proposed methods appropriately modify the amount which is regarded as an outlier in constructing our prediction model. The method is then applied to two types of mutiple regression (L_2 regression and L_1 regression) and two types of neural network (multiple layer network and radial basis function network). In order to quantitatively evaluate the methods, they are applied to real building construction data. It is observed through the experiments that (i) the data modification is in general effective for improving the overall prediction accuracy, (ii) the Winsorization method is superior to the other data modification methods for any of four prediction models, and (iii) both of L_1 regression and the radial basis function network are superior to the other two.

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