Projects and References

In growing cities, more and more surfaces are being sealed. This increases the contact of rainwater with materials, e.g. roofs, resulting in the contamination of precipitation runoff with harmful substances. However, no clear or statistically relevant information on pollutant emissions is available for most roof materials, as hardly any studies have been carried out and these are usually based on one-off random samples. General conditions such as atmospheric influences or gutter material, are often not sufficiently described. There is therefore a considerable need for research in order to draw scientifically sound conclusions about pollutants in precipitation runoff from non-metal roofs.

The development of solar water desalination plants is a promising approach to sustainable water treatment in water-scarce regions. At the Fraunhofer Institute for Building Physics IBP, several projects have been carried out in order to advance this technology. The aim was to evaluate the technical feasibility, identify optimisation potential and create the basis for market maturity.

Radiation concentrations due to focusing glass facades can cause material damage (for instance, failure of plastics, e.g. seals in facades) and induce annoying glare problems, which may even impair visual functions.

Every year, numerous art objects and monuments are enclosed to protect them against the weather, typically using wooden structures. However, the resulting humid indoor climate of these enclosures promotes microbial growth and increases freeze-thaw damage, often leading to expensive restorations. The project partners have therefore developed a modular enclosure system for outdoor cultural assets exposed to the elements, using transparent membranes and an innovative ventilation system. This ensures effective moisture removal under all weather conditions and eliminates moisture as the main cause of damage. Through a self-regulating ventilation system, the enclosure maintains a drier interior climate, allowing the enclosed artifacts to dry quickly and remain dry. This prevents freeze-thaw cycles from causing damage. The modular design facilitates assembly, disassembly, and storage, so that art objects both remain visible and are better protected.

Municipalities are faced with the challenge of adapting to climate change. On the one hand, they have to choose effective and sustainable measures, and on the other hand, they have to take into account the interests of residents and act under cost pressure. Key areas where cities need to take action include structural and spatial design and urban use of land. More about this in the Buolus project.

The Wild Climate Wall is an innovative green facade system designed to enhance biodiversity and climate resilience in densely built urban environments. By integrating native wild shrubs, herbs, and grasses, along with specially selected modular habitat systems (providing breeding and nesting spaces for wild bees, birds, and bats), the Wild Climate Wall offers a unique and heterogeneous diversity of plants and structures for vertical greening.

Climate change has significant impacts on our lives. Over the next few decades, extreme weather events such as heat waves, heavy rain, and flooding will continue to increase. In addition, gradual changes such as the shifting of precipitation patterns and rising annual average temperatures with more extreme heat days in the future are expected. As part of the pilot project “Climate Adaptation in Cultural Institutions”, 20 cultural institutions, including museums, libraries, theaters, socio-cultural institutions and park facilities, are being examined with regard to their vulnerability to location-specific climate-related changes, and climate adaptation measures are being developed. Based on these assessments, tailored adaption measures will be developed, considering structural, organizational, and programmatic potentials. The project focuses not only on protecting people, but also on safeguarding the buildings themselves and their often historically valuable interiors.

IMEDAS is an in-house software development for measurement, control and regulation of test benches.

Although modern thermal glazing reduces a building’s energy requirements, it also has an impact on sound insulation.

To achieve a biological transformation, material flows must be considered as a whole and biointelligent solutions found for them. Closed material cycles are essential. For the insulating material, biological raw materials as well as residual materials are bonded together by mycelial growth.

The overall objective of the CoolDown project is to collect and validate suitable measures for the rapid and practicable transformation of heating networks with a focus on the secondary side and (existing) buildings. To this end, the technical, regulatory and economic requirements will be identified and evaluated in detail.

At present, there is a high vacancy rate in office buildings due to people working remotely. This is a major economic and ecological problem: air-conditioned, illuminated office space stands empty while people work from home in less energy-efficient living spaces. For offices to be used, they must offer employees clear advantages. The classic multi-space concept, an open-plan office with various workplace modules, still leaves a lot to be desired, especially when it comes to privacy.

Acoustic panels are used to improve the acoustics in rooms with a high proportion of sound-reflecting surfaces. To make them look more attractive, the surface of these panels is covered with a slotted or micro-perforated wooden veneer. This regular surface design narrows the width of the absorption spectrum and impairs the high-quality, natural impression of the wood surface. In the present project, this technical problem is solved by a novel brushing process that opens the wood veneer along the grain, creating irregular holes.

In the GreenAcoustics project, a digital tool that takes a more comprehensive approach is to be designed and implemented as a prototype. The tool will be based on Fraunhofer IBP's existing reverberate technology, which uses not only the usual acoustic parameters, but also the shape of the room and the uneven distribution of absorbers in the room to calculate the reverberation time.

In the “Bassorber” project, a comprehensive calculation tool developed at IBP is used to accelerate and optimize the development of absorbers. The tool not only allows the absorption coefficients of almost all absorber structures to be optimized, but also the interaction between the absorbers.

In the Digital Room Acoustics Planning (DIGAKUST) project, a software solution is being developed that automatically calculates relevant key acoustic figures and makes them audible in a simulation environment in real time by transferring technical room parameters (e.g. size of the room, position of objects in the room, material properties of the surfaces). The aim is to provide users with an easy-to-use tool that captures interiors in great detail, automatically assigns object properties, allows the geometry of the room to be individually configured via an intuitive user interface, and makes it possible to experience the resulting changes in room acoustics in real time. Thus, the impact of structural or design changes on the overall acoustics becomes immediately apparent.

Propofol, an intravenously administered hypnotic, has outstanding advantages over commonly used inhalational anesthetics. It is effective against post-operative nausea, does not trigger malignant hyperthermia - a potentially fatal anesthesia complication - and is not a greenhouse gas. The main disadvantage of propofol, however, is that, unlike inhalational anesthetics, its drug concentration cannot be determined during anesthesia using any clinically applicable method. Photoacoustic spectroscopy is a highly promising approach for monitoring propofol in exhaled air in a clinically applicable way.

In the project “Acoustically optimized design of fan attachments and casings (ADVentAGe)”, hybrid active noise control systems are being developed and validated in collaboration with project partners. These can be integrated into fan casings or typical fan attachments such as inlet cones, protective grilles and diffusers to significantly reduce acoustic emissions from fans.

Ventilation systems in the home must fulfill more and more requirements. In order to meet both energy and sound insulation requirements, an ever-increasing proportion of ventilation concepts have to be designed with fan-assisted systems. A fan-assisted exhaust air system in accordance with DIN 1946-6 is comparatively inexpensive and easy to install. With this system, the exhaust air is removed by fans in the rooms and replaced passively by an inflow of fresh air from external air vents (EAV). However, due to the increasingly airtight construction of new buildings, an ever-higher volume flow is needed. The high air flow means that sound insulation requirements cannot always be met. This is often particularly a problem in (inner) cities.

Whether at home, in a hotel or at work in the office, the problem is often the same: You want to open the window to air the room, but it is very loud outside. After a short time, you close the window again to avoid the noise. The solution: automatic windows that open when ventilation is required, as detected by sensors, yet also have an automatic closing function that is activated as soon as a certain noise level is reached outside the building. However, the development in the Sound Controlled Ventilation project goes beyond simple volume control. It can also filter sounds based on their type and include the indoor noise level in the decision-making process via a microphone installed in the room.