The purpose of this paper is to develop a Heat Release Rate (HRR) model based on scaling laws for highly combustibles materials, such as rubber or plastic, to simulate a fire in a factory, where a lot of rubber/plastic combustible is stored. Generally, a wooden crib is used to make a combustion model in the fire engineering, and scaling laws on wooden crib are widely used to estimate the fire load of furniture, building finishes and so on. However, little is known about the rubber fire properties, those having much heavier load and rapid-expanding features than wood fire properties. A series of fire experiments using geometrical similar rubber cribs were performed, and observed data; weight loss curve, flame height and radiant intensity; showed possibility of scaling laws of rubber crib. Finally, a HRR model for rubber fire is proposed.

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Investigation of evacuation ability of residents and fire safety features of existing group homes for aged with senile-dementia through questionnaire to nurses is reported. It has been revealed that 80% of the residents are over 75 years old and nearly 40% need higher level nursing care and only 17% of the residents are found to be able to evacuate by him/herself at the event of fire. Nearly half of the facilities use existing buildings converted from such occupancies as dwellings, dormitories and welfare facilities. Majority of the facilities, especially those converted from dwellings are weak against fire in the lack of fire and smoke separation between corridor and rooms, alternative evacuation routes or fire detectors/alarms.

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Investigation of the properties of live fire load is conducted on large book stores from the interest on performance based fire safety design. The study focuses not only the report of fire load, surface area to mass ratio but also development of a simplified site investigation methodology of fire load of book stores where extreme difficulty is anticipated for the few yearly holidays available for such investigation. In this report, the characteristics of live fire load were grasped for fire safety design of large book stores and a methodology for the measurement of fire load was developed to reduce the effort of investigation. This proposed method was essentially developed from the distinction of the characteristics of live fire load like the arrangement and shape of book cases. The results reveal that the fire load is highly dependent on the height and material of bookcases. This paper also indicates that the prescribed total heat release for book store in building code standards of Japan, 960MJ/m^2, is not on the dangerous side estimation because the investigation has resulted in total heat release over twice larger, and the surface area per unit weight ratio is smaller than 1/4 the previous reports on other occupancies. These suggest that a fire in a large book store may proceed generally notably more slowly and last longer than in other building occupancies if not extinguished. The proposed simplified investigation method is found to reduce manpower necessary for the site investigation by 80% and enable site investigation in short time before or after the business hours.

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This study picked up the Bashamichi street in Yokohama city, and investigated characteristics of mismatching elements with the streetscape in the daytime and nighttime. As a result, mismatching elements in the daytime tended to spread large range such as entire buildings and entire walls, and their chromaticity values tended to be apart from the white point. On the other hand, mismatching elements in the nighttime tended to be confined to specific parts such as in the lower layer of buildings and bright openings, and their chromaticity values tended to be apart from the value of the streetlamps. Mismatching elements of the nighttime streetscape also related to the strength and distribution of artificial lightings, therefore, it was thought that a nighttime guideline of the street scene based on luminance and chromaticity was required.

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The annual air-conditioning loads calculated from three kinds of reference weather year (RWY) were compared. The RWYs used for the comparison were Expanded AMeDAS Reference Weather Year (EA-RWY) of 1995 yr versions and 2000 yr versions, and SHASE Reference Weather Year (SHASE-RWY). The following results were obtained. 1) As for the heating and cooling load calculated from the EA-RWY of 2000 yr versions, it was found that the proportion of the cooling load increased and the proportion of heating load decreased than that of 1995 yr versions. 2) The total cooling and heating load calculated from the EA-RWY of 2000 yr versions was similar to that of 1995 yr versions. 3) As for the heating and cooling load calculated from the EA-RWY, it was found that the proportion of the cooling load increased and the proportion of heating load decreased than that calculated from the SHASE-RWY. 4) The total cooling and heating load calculated from the EA-RWY was similar to that calculated from the SHASE-RWY.

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This paper describes the characteristic of coefficient of performance (COP) of a household air-conditioner. We measured 13 air-conditioners installed in residences in Niigata by the simplified COP measurement technique. The results are as follows. (1) There are big difference between the actual COP and the catalog COP. Actual COP is higher than catalog COP for a cooling, and actual COP is lower than catalog COP for a heating period. (2) In this study, heating capacity of the air-conditioner is relatively smaller than cooling capacity. (3) Actual COP of heating period is smaller than actual COP of cooling period.

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Surface temperatures of the surrounding six walls were estimated on the measurement of plane radiant temperature on six surfaces of the cube using a cubic net radiometer. Conduction heat flux of some surface of the surrounding walls was measured by heat flow meter. Radiation heat flux on the surface of heat flow meter was estimated using angle factors and surface temperatures of the surrounding walls. Convection heat flux was calculated as the heat balance of the surface of heat flow meter. The effective radiant field as the error in use of the overall heat transfer coefficient was studied and indicated never to be ignored in the simple calculation of heat flow on the wall surface.

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The energy consumption of residential sector in Japan is continuing to increase. It is necessary to grasp the actual conditions more in great detail and more accurately for effective energy saving. In this paper, energy consumption data based on detailed load survey for two and a half years on actual 14 houses in Kanto district are analyzed We studied daily variation of the energy consumption for each usage. Additionally, by applying seasonal adjustment, we separated seasonal variation and daily fluctuation from daily variation of energy consumption.

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While solar-shading devices for buildings' openings contribute to reducing solar heat gain, they can increase airflow resistance of openings. Natural ventilation through windows contributes to the improvement of indoor thermal environment by dissipating indoor heat and increasing indoor air speed. In this study, by measuring independently the solar heat gain coefficient and the discharge coefficient, different types of solar shading devices including the eave are evaluated in an integrated way. When the solar-shading devices are moved and attached on the insect screen due to the outflow, such as in the case of curtains, the discharge coefficient of the openings with the devices decreases considerably.

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For the purpose of evaluating the performance of water saving fixture for dishwashing, water saving and energy conservation effects of styles of faucets with flow pattern and stop valves were examined by subject experiment. Subjects used a faucet with flow pattern options of shower flow or aerated flow, and with on/off control systems that included a foot-switch stop valve and a sensor stop valve. An experiment using a combination of the flow pattern and the on/off control function with the highest water-saving performances was also conducted. As a result of subject experiment, the water-saving rate of each device was as follows: shower-flow faucet, 29.1%(9.4L); aerated flow faucet, 3.7%(1.3L); sensor stop valve, 5.2%(1.7L); and foot-switch stop valve, 8.3%(2.6L). The combination of shower-flow faucet and foot-switch stop valve achieved water-saving rate of 44.0%(13.0L), confirming the additive effect.

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In this paper, the effects of temperature were quantified with respect to energy source (electric power, gas, or petroleum-based fuels) and the effects of temperature increase associated with heat island phenomena and global warming on the energy consumption of a city as a whole (civilian, industrial, and traffic sectors) were studied. Results showed that in the civilian sector in all parts of Osaka Prefecture, if the year-round temperature increased by 1 degree Celsius, the annual energy consumption would decrease in houses, but increase in business buildings. It was confirmed that in the industrial sector variation in energy consumption caused by changes in temperature are extremely small and the effects are negligible. In the traffic sector, the annual energy consumption would increase slightly as the temperature rose, but in comparison to the civilian sector, the effect would be extremely small.

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Field measurements of outdoor wind and thermal environments were carried out in the summer in Haramachi City of Fukusima Prefecture for two years. The aim of this study is to investigate the present outdoor thermal environment condition of urban area in such provincial cities and the factors, that is land and sea breeze and land cover, contributing to air temperature increasing and decreasing. In the first year, the measurements obtained for cold northeast wind, "Yamase", and air temperature showed that the records were not so high. Water temperatures from river and sea were also measured, and the readings both showed higher than air temperature in surroundings. Air temperatures measured from the river area showed cooler than around residential and urban areas. This is because river played an important role as a passage of cold air from the sea. Long-term measurement was carried out and the data in typical fine day in summer were obtained in the next year. It was confirmed that air temperature in and around the city was decreased when sea breeze blew. On the other hand, the tendency that air temperature was high in the period where land breeze blew was seen.

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In this study the energy performance data of District Heating and Cooling (DHC) plants all over Japan are analyzed with factor analysis and multiple regression analysis in order to verify statistically the factors that effect energy efficiency of DHC plants. In addition, the evaluation methods of Co-Generation System (CGS) are examined to reveal how the discrepancy in the definition of waste heat value from CGS affects energy efficiency. The results lead to the following three conclusions. 1. The operation of heat source equipment is an important factor in all systems. 2. The heat load characteristic affects energy efficiency especially in plants which uses gas as main energy source. 3. The energy efficiency of plants utilizing CGS varies greatly according to evaluation method and actual operation condition of CGS.

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This study aims to clarify the effects of roadside trees on turbulent airflow, air pollutant diffusion and pedestrian thermal comfort within street canyons in the central part of Sendai city, Japan. The detailed measurements were carried out within Jozenji-street in the summer of 2004. Measurements within Hirose-street were also conducted for comparison. Characteristics of flow pattern and distributions of turbulence quantities were investigated, and time-variations of spatial distributions of NO_X concentration and thermal environment, i.e. air temperature, globe temperature, air humidity and SET were shown. In Jozenji-street, many trees were planted on sidewalk and central walkway, and the density of trees was much higher than that in Hirose-street. The effects caused by roadside trees showed complex results which clearly improved thermal environment but also increased NO_X concentration simultaneously.

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In this paper, the method we proposed before was progressed to consider effects of buildings on temperature, radiation and airflow. Moreover, by applying the method, the influence of temperature, radiation and airflow varied by buildings on cross ventilation and cooling energy consumption in a residential house was estimated. The results are as follows: (1) Under the influence of buildings, temperature would rise in daytime and fall in nighttime. (2) Buildings would shield solar radiation in daytime; they would reduce nocturnal radiation in nighttime. (3) In the case of considering buildings, when windows were open, indoor thermal environment would become worse due to weakened airflow velocity, while air change rate would be enough great to discharge inner heat into outside; when windows were close, infiltration rate would become so small as to cause temperature to rise and cooling heat loads to increase. (4) Cross ventilation duration would be increased by fall in temperature in daytime and by adding shading in evening, while it would be decreased by intensification of nocturnal radiation from night to morning. On the other hand, cooling energy consumption would be decreased by reduction of infiltration above all.

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