In order to clarify indoor climate in a space after flooding, long-term experiment using a test house was performed. A second-story test house was constructed in a campus of Akita Prefectural University in 2003. In this experiment two rooms on the first floor of the test house and spaces were used. Tap-water was supplied to 100mm depth on a space in each room, and after 72 hours it drained. In this paper, indoor humidity and water contents of wood and concrete in a space were analyzed from the view point of moisture balance in a space after flooding.

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 Recent years have seen the wide adoption of floor insulated houses. Floor insulated houses is Many studies in the past have reported the high humidity of spaces in the summer season. In this research, we propose a humidity control method for spaces in floor insulated houses based on actual measurement data. The effects of that proposal on spaces were clarified through experimentation and simulation. The result is shown as follows.
 1) In the actual measurement, space of target house is average relative humidity 80% or more in summer season. It was guessed that high humidity of spaces can be suppressed by supplying indoor air to space.
 2) In the experimentation, it was confirmed that the relative humidity decreased due to the air supply effect. But the cumulative percentage at a relative humidity of over 80% didn't fall below 80 percent. Therefore, this result shows that the risk of fungal contamination is high.
 3) In the simulation, calculations were performed to supply indoor air to the space as in the actual measurement. it was confirmed that the relative humidity decreased due to the air supply effect in all areas. And it was shown that the risk of fungal contamination is relatively low where the cumulative percentage of relative humidity of 80% or more is 50% or less. Increase rate of heating load in the house was about 10% at maximum.
 As above, characteristics of hygrothermal behavior in the space were clarify. And it was shown that supplying indoor air to the space is effective for reduction of high humidity in the space. The proposed method is effective only when indoor air is low humidity by air conditioner etc. But it is guessed that there are many people who use air conditioning in summer season. Therefore, it is believed that the method proposed in this research is important.

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In order to improve the performance of the floor heating system, it is very important to investigate how the heat loss is caused and how the energy consumption of the system could be reduced. Therefore, the heat loss from a hot water floor heating system was investigated in a residential house in Japan. Through the investigation process, several improvements were made in the heating system. To know the effect of the improvements, the upward/downward heat flows from the hot-water panel and the heat loss from the piping of the floor heating system were calculated. In result, insulating the piping and attaching the insulation below the floor improved the upward heat flow rate from the panel. However closing the ventilation openings hardly improved the rate of the upward heat flow from the panel. Although insulating the pipe and attaching the insulation below the floor improved the upward heat flow, heat loss from the piping was still high. To reduce the heat loss from the floor heating system, it is much effective to insulate the piping, compared with the improvement of the insulation and structure of the floor.

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A method of evaluating the thermal performance of floor heating systems is examined as a commissioning tool. A simple method is needed to check a floor heating system while in use by residents, because evaluation currently requires significant time and effort. Therefore, a commissioning process consisting of three steps was proposed and applied to four residences. The performance of a floor heating system was estimated in these three steps: (1) efficiency was estimated from the room temperature and the energy consumption with the floor surface temperature kept constant, (2) space temperature was compared with the system on and off (a hot-water floor heating system raised the space temperature), (3) heat flow from the floor panel was analyzed by a one-dimensional heat conduction calculation using detailed measured data. The feasibility of estimating the thermal characteristics of the floor was shown by fitting the average and amplitude of the measured temperatures to the calculated value.

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The objective of this study was to clarify the unsteady characteristics of the fluid forces acting on limbs during swimming. For this objective, an underwater robot arm was developed in this paper. The robot arm has five degrees-of-freedom in order to perform the various complicated limb motions during swimming. In addition, by changing the hand replica into the foot one, the robot also can perform the lower limb motions. The joint torques and the resultant thrust can be measured by the force sensors attached to the robot. In a circulating water tank, an experiment to measure the fluid forces was conducted for four swimming strokes of the upper and lower limbs. From the experiment, it was found that even the slight difference of the fluid forces between slightly different swimming motions can be quantified by the developed experimental system. In addition, it was suggested that ‘nipping’ the water by both lower limbs during the kick of the breaststroke almost does not affect thrust generation. The developed experimental system with the robot arm is useful not only for measuring the unsteady fluid forces, but also for flow visualization in future studies.

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 In houses having a

space with insulated foundation walls and a non-insulated floor over the space, if the entire space can be heated, then the entire floor will be heated. As a result, the entire first floor space will become the radiant heating environment. We call this heating system as the “-space heating system”. This system has low risks of vascular disorders such as cerebrovascular disease caused by the large temperature differences between the rooms on the first floor.

 In this paper, we propose a method to estimate the maximum heat loss from the

space to the foundation walls and the ground for 24-h continuous -space heating, which is used to estimate the required heating capacity of the heat source equipment.

 Our proposed estimation method is outlined as follows. This method uses the feature in that the heat conduction equation and boundary conditions used for heat loss calculation are linear when the thermal properties (density, specific heat, and thermal conductivity) of the object can be regarded as constant. We express the temperature fluctuations of the

space and those outdoor by superposing the unit temperature fluctuation. Heat losses under the conditions of each unit temperature fluctuation are calculated by numerical simulations, and they are expressed by formulae that use the insulation performances of the foundation and the thermal conductivity of the ground as explanatory variables. By superposing them in accordance with the original temperature fluctuations, estimating the heat loss at any insulation performance of the foundation, thermal conductivity of the ground, temperature of the space, and outdoor temperature is possible. This method is useful when designing -space heating because maximum heat loss can be estimated simply by substituting values in accordance with conditions into the proposed equations without using a numerical calculation.

 First, we outline this estimation method. Subsequently, the influences of outdoor air temperature used for numerical simulation,

space model and the ground to be calculated, heating period, and the thermal properties of the ground (density, specific heat, and thermal conductivity) on the calculation result are examined, and the calculation conditions for numerically calculating heat losses under the conditions of each unit temperature fluctuation are determined. Furthermore, as it is necessary to use the values of the same time when superposing the heat losses calculated under the conditions of each unit temperature fluctuation, the suitable time for estimating the maximum heat loss is examined. Thus, we derived formulae that estimate heat losses under the conditions of each unit temperature fluctuation according to the insulation performance of the foundation and the thermal conductivity of the ground using multiple regression analysis, and we proposed equations to estimate the maximum heat loss depending on the area of the space, perimeter length of the space, and area of the foundation walls.

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We found many houses have condensation in the space in summer. These houses have enough openings on the foundation to ventilate and vapor retarder at the ground surface for the recommend in the building code. The temperature and humidity in the space have great influences to durability of the house. We made clear the annual variations of hygro-thermal environment of the space by the field measurements and numerical analysis. We monitored the temperature and humidity variations of 36 houses in Japan for 2 years. The numerical calculations based on the vertical one dimension heat transfer model represented the monitored results. The results show the houses in Japan normally have condensation in space in summer. The condensation term is from one week to one month. The daily average of space's vapor pressure is nearly equal to that of the outdoors. The difference of 2 years results is so great that we think the main factor is outdoor condition. The thermal resistance of the floor and moisture of the ground do not have great effect on the space humidity.

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Temperature and humidity in the spaces of house have great influences to durability of the house. Therefore temperature and humidity in the spaces have to be studied the gross spaces including ground soil. We investigate ventilation and hygrothermal characteristics of confined spaces without soil cover. Computer simulation based on simultaneous heat and moisture transfer for confined gross spaces including ground soil and multi room temperature and humidity, together with ventilation balance eluations reveals that soil cover in summer makes higher humidity of spaces than no soil coves due to the moisture reduction effect by absorption of ground soil in summer.

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The objective of this study was to realize the free swimming of the stroke with the previously developed swimming humanoid robot. The upper body of the robot was remodeled to fit a free swimming test. The developed robot was simulated to raise feasibility of the stroke. Through the simulation, two improved models were proposed. In the experiment, the swimming humanoid robot was fitted to the two simulation models and both realized the stroke successfully. The measured roll angle was about ± 60 degrees and the swimming speed was between 0.2 m/s and 0.24 m/s.

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There are many dynamical problems in front swimming which have not been fully investigated by analytical approaches. Therefore, in this paper, standard six beat front swimming is analyzed by the swimming human simulation model SWUM, which has been developed by the authors. First, the outline of the simulation model, the joint motion for one stroke cycle, and the specifications of calculation are described respectively. Next, contribution of each fluid force component and of each body part to the thrust, effect of the flutter kick, estimation of the active drag, roll motion, and the propulsive efficiency are discussed respectively. The following results were theoretically obtained: The thrust is produced at the upper limb by the normal drag force component. The flutter kick plays a role in raising the lower half of the body. The active drag coefficient in the simulation becomes 0.082. Buoyancy determines the primal wave of the roll motion fluctuation. The propulsive efficiency in the simulation becomes 0.2.

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‘-space heating’ is a heating system using the space as a duct for heat transport from a heat pump. The purpose of this study is to grasp the convective heat-transfer coefficient at the slab-concrete surface and the floor-under surface, under the condition of -space heating. When the -space heating is operated, the air velocity in the space is generally 0.05-0.20m/s and the heat transfer is caused by both the forced convection and the natural convection. We measure the convective heat-transfer coefficient by the wind tunnel test. It is revealed that the convective heat-transfer coefficient at the slab-concrete surface is about 1.0-4.0W/m²K and that at the floor-under surface is about 6.0-10.0W/m²K.

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The objective of this study was to develop a prototype of transfemoral prosthesis for swimming focused on the ankle joint motion. This prosthesis has (i) an ankle joint which provides appropriate foot motion, (ii) the capability of walking on land by the poolside, (iii) and a foot whose appearance is sufficiently similar to an actual one. In order to confirm the validity of the developed prosthesis, a swimming experiment, in which a subject swimmer swam in a pool with the developed prosthesis attached, was conducted. The joint angles of the lower limbs were measured and an evaluation with questionnaires was performed. The validity of the proposed prosthesis was experimentally confirmed since the movable ankle joint with an appropriate spring brought a large foot motion, yielding a better swimming performance and more comfort to the swimmer. In addition to the experiment, the simulation of the swimming movement with the prosthesis was conducted. Through the simulation, the general validity of the developed prosthesis was confirmed since the simulation's result exhibited the same tendency as the experiment, in which a spring constant that was too large for the extension spring brought worse swimming performance.

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The vertical edge insulation on foundation walls, the popular method for structures located in colder regions, is expected to spread across moderate and humid climate regions because of its insulation superiority in the hygrothermal environments found in spaces. However, in the first year after completion of buildings, the hygrothermal condition in spaces with insulation foundation wall tends to worsen, leading to condensation and heating load growth. We clarify the factors affecting the hygrothermal behavior in spaces with insulation foundation wall and explore some possible improvements in these hygrothermal environments through simulating simultaneous heat and moisture transfer.

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Actual measurement and numerical simulation were conducted in

space of detached houses, and the following points were clarified.

1. A house with high insulation performance of the floor insulation will have a lower temperature in the

space and higher humidity than a house with low.

2. Low temperature and high humidity becomes more noticeable in a house where it is difficult for outside air to flow into center of

space.

3. Outside air humidity has the largest effect on humidity of

space, followed by ventilation volume>thickness of floor insulation>cooling set temperature of room on 1st floor.

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The objective of this study was to investigate the effect of knee joint motion on swimming performance for a transfemoral prosthesis in swimming. A flat spring at the knee joint was introduced into a prosthesis which had already been developed, in order to enable the knee joint to move according to the fluid force acting on the lower limb. A swimming experiment, in which a subject using the prosthesis swam in a pool, was conducted. Five types of flat spring for the knee joint were prepared for the experiment. From the experiment, it was found that there was a proper stiffness of the flat spring from which the subject felt comfortable during swimming. Next, simulations for the flutter kick and stroke were conducted. The validity of the simulation method was confirmed since the simulated joint angles in the simulation of the flutter kick were sufficiently consistent with the experimental ones in respect to the amplitudes and phases for both the knee and ankle. During the simulation of the stroke, it was found that the amplitude of the hip joint torque on the prosthetic leg compared to the healthy leg increased according to the increase in the stiffness of the knee joint. Since this amount was considered to directly correspond with the ‘reaction during kick' in the VAS evaluation of the experiment, in which the subject evaluated the stiffer knee flat spring as ‘heavier', the consistency of the tendencies between the simulation and experiment was confirmed. From the simulation results, it was also suggested that the subject in the experiment preferred stiffness at the knee joint which minimized the difference between the amplitude of the hip joint torque on the healthy leg and that on the prosthetic leg.

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The objectives of this study were to solve computationally the arm stroke in the swimming which maximized the swimming speed for different maximum joint torque conditions, and to investigate the maximum joint torque dependency of the swimming with the optimized arm stroke. In the optimizing calculation, the swimming human simulation model, SWUM, was used for the simulation of the swimming. The maximum joint torque characteristics, which were constructed in the previous study, were imposed as the constraint condition. In order to investigate the maximum joint torque dependency of the optimized arm stroke, four levels of maximum joint torque were prepared. The following findings were obtained from the results of optimization: The maximum swimming speed was realized by shortening the stroke cycle as much as possible although this shortening brought a lower propulsive efficiency as well as a lower stroke length. In a constant maximum joint torque condition, the swimmer does not push the water by turning the palm to the side in the latter half of the underwater stroke at the stroke cycle which brings the maximum swimming speed. The locus of the hand was relatively straight. At the slightly longer stroke cycle, the swimmer pushed the water until the end of the underwater stroke. The locus of the hand was still relatively straight. At the sufficiently longer stroke cycle, the swimmer also pushed the water until the end of the underwater stroke. The locus of the hand, however, became more curved and therefore became a so-called ‘S-shaped’ stroke.

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The objective of this study was to propose a CPG network which can generate the swimming motion of the

stroke. First, the CPG network for legs performing a flutter kick was constructed by connecting the neural oscillators for the leg joints. The flutter kick motion was successfully generated by the proposed CPG network. The propulsion by the generated flutter kick motion was confirmed by the simulation of the swimming movement. Next, the CPG network for both the arms and legs were constructed, in which the neural oscillator for the arms initiated the trigger signal to start the prescribed stroke motion. By changing the intrinsic cycle of the neural oscillators for the legs, both six- and two-beat crawls could be realized. It was also found that a stable region with respect to the relationship between the intrinsic cycles of the neural oscillators for the arms and legs certainly existed for the six-beat , although the intrinsic cycles of the arms were three times longer than those of the legs in this case. The propulsion by the generated swimming motion was confirmed by the simulation of the swimming movement both for the six- and two-beat crawls. Finally, the roll angle of the swimmer was fed back into the CPG network in order to restore the balance in the roll direction. Restoring the balance in the roll direction was successfully realized by the proposed feedback algorithm. The resultant motion showed a complicated behavior, such as skipping strokes.

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The authors proposed a passive cooling method in our previous paper, i. e. to induce cooled air in a space to an indoor space by ventilation. This method was examined by model house tests without direct solar heat gain. In this paper, this method is re-examined under various conditions and its thermal performance is simulated for practical use. The experiment models used here are houses without windows, with windows and with windows fixed with eaves. The cooling effect of this method is recognized in all these cases. Thermal performance in a space, the mechanism of this cooling method, is modelled for numerical simulation. The calculated air temperature in the space and that in the room are in good accordance with those of model house tests. This numerical simulation model is applied to the estimate of three factors which influence the cooling power of the space. They are the length of the space, the ventilation rate and the evaporation ratio. It is also applied to the simulation of the thermal performance in the practical scaled model houses. They are wooden, reinforced concrete and wooden double envelope house. The practicability of this passive cooling method is made clear by the numerical simulation.

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The purpose of this study was to develop the criterion of observational movement evaluation of no-breath front

for the 4th grade children of swimming classes in elementary school physical education and verify for its effectiveness. Participants in this study were 4th grade 68 children (24 boys and 44 girls). Specifically, no-breath front performance test was conducted, and the analysis was performed according to 2 data: reaching distance and movement score.

The main results were as follows:

・This study developed the criterion of observational movement evaluation for no-breath front

with three site movements (”stroke”, ”trunk movement” and ”flutter kick”) , six evaluation items (“pull”, “push”, “posture”, “rolling”, “leg movement” and “kick width”) and a three-level scale.

・The reliability of this criterion was high because the response stability and consistency in the movement evaluation of the no-breath front

were significantly recognized.

・The validity of this criterion was high because there was a significant correlation between no-breath front

performances score and the reaching distance.

These results indicated that the developed criterion can be used for the movement evaluation of no-breath front

for children in the 4th grade.

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