Termite mound climate control may serve as a model for the climate-smart buildings of the future. According to brand-new findings from Lund University in Sweden, future buildings modeled after termites may be able to mimic conventional climate control while doing so at a lower cost and with a lower carbon dioxide footprint.
The intricate ventilation system found in termite mounds makes it possible for air to flow throughout the structure. This aids in the regulation of temperature and humidity.
The article’s author, senior lecturer David Andréen of Lund University’s Department of Architecture and Built Environment, states, “The digitalization of design and construction processes creates enormous opportunities for how we shape architecture, and natural and biological systems provide an important model for how we can best utilize these possibilities.”
“Natural and biological systems serve as an important model for how we can most effectively utilize these possibilities for how we shape architecture as a result of the digitalization of design and construction processes,”
David Andréen, senior lecturer at the Department of Architecture and Built Environment at Lund University,
A structure for buildings based on termite mounds that makes it easier to control the temperature inside is shown in the results, which were published in the journal Frontiers in Materials.
“The review centers around the inside of termite hills, which comprise thousands of interconnected channels, passages, and air loads, and how these catch wind energy to ‘inhale,’ or trade oxygen and carbon dioxide with the environmental elements. We have investigated the operation of these systems and the possibility of incorporating similar structures into building walls to alter the flow of air, heat, and moisture.
Therefore, the goal is to develop novel techniques for controlling the flow of air throughout buildings that will be significantly more climate- and energy-efficient than conventional air conditioning, which makes use of the bulk flow principle and is typically driven by fans. All things being equal, it is feasible to foster frameworks that are fierce, dynamic, and variable.
“These can be constrained by tiny hardware and require minor energy arrangements,” says David Andréen.
The study showed how geometry—the parameters in the structure that cause the flows to arise—interacts with airflows and how they can be selectively controlled. These can be driven without utilizing mechanical parts, for example, fans, valves, and similar devices, as only electronic control is required.
This is a precondition for a dispersed framework wherein numerous little sensors and managing gadgets are put in the versatile structure envelope through scaling down, solidness/supportability, and cost decrease,” says David Andréen.
This empowers guidelines for the structure’s indoor environment and allows it to control factors, for example, temperature and stickiness, without depending on enormous fans and warming and cooling frameworks. The instruments are subject to having the option to make complex inward calculations (on the millimeter-to-centimeter scale), which is just conceivable utilizing 3D printing. Value can be added to the built environment using 3D printing to create sustainable architecture that would not have been possible otherwise.
“It’s entrancing the way in which the termites’ structure cycle figures out how to make very complicated well-working ‘designing magnum opuses,’ without having the unified control or drawings to allude to that we would require,” closes David Andréen.
More information: David Andréen et al, Termite-inspired metamaterials for flow-active building envelopes, Frontiers in Materials (2023). DOI: 10.3389/fmats.2023.1126974
