Brazil. After more than ten years of research, a professor at USP has developed a device that individualizes the output of the air conditioner. This is the DCTI (Terminal Device of Air Conditioning System for Indivualized Thermal Comfort), created by Professor Brenda Chaves Coelho Leite, of the Polytechnic School (Poli) of USP, based on a doctoral research carried out in 2003.
In the study, Brenda tried to come to a conclusion regarding men's and women's preferences for temperature and airflow speed in an air-conditioned microclimate. For this he relied on behavioral analysis.
The author thought of a device that would allow everyone to adjust the microclimate to their preferences. In an analysis with 33 people, with a balance between men and women, Brenda found that the air speed can vary from 0.1 meters per second to 0.3 meters per second, without causing discomfort, while the temperature is on average regulated between 26 and 27 degrees Celsius. "Most Brazilians feel more comfortable at these temperatures higher than 20, 21 degrees. Especially at high speed, such as 0.3 meters per second, which combines at low temperature and is cold," said the researcher.
The development is an air outlet with a nozzle that is above the table, embedded below to a tube that conducts the air of a central air conditioning system, preferably of distribution by the floor, through a plenary, that is, a space between the floor plate and the floor raised to a height of 30 centimeters in general, in which the air is stored at a pressure slightly higher than that of the environment.
The operation is completely mechanical: from the entire floor, already treated, filtered and cooled by the central air conditioner, the air rises through the tube connected to the ground and passes through a diaphragm at the bottom of the DCTI nozzle leaving it at the top above the table with the help of baffles that resemble blades of a fan, with a slight twist. To regulate the opening of the diphragm and sliders, and the air outlet, it can be manually directed to the sides, up or down.
Each part of the device has a purpose, as explained. "The diaphragm allows the complete filling of the nozzle space through the air passing through it, depending on the regulated opening, in the form of a cylinder or truncated cone. He travels the calculated distance from the entrance to the exit, and then finds these crooked paddles, which also have an opening, but small. This format ensures airspeed pauses and their propagation, what we call high-induction flow, with low speed and great range," explained Professor Brenda.
Source: Jornal da UPS.
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