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Following initial discussions with Professor Jean Emblem of NPARU (National Pollen & Aerobiological Research Unit) in January 2005, Design Environmental is very pleased to be completing the installation and commissioning of the large environmental test room at the heart of the universities impressive new building. Design Environmental not only provided technical expertise for the room but also advised architects BDP to make sure the building design could accommodate all the necessary plant and services.
The environmental room has been designed to accurately control temperature from -20°C to +50°C with humidity control from 5%RH to 95%RH and in addition it can simulate altitude. To provide the altitude simulation or hypoxic environment the plant includes the latest high flow technology hypoxic module supplied by The Altitude Centre.
High air flow rates of up to 1,500 litres per minute flush the environmental chamber with pre filtered air, which is enough to ensure Carbon dioxide build up from exercising subjects is flushed out of the chamber along with odours and other pollutants. The oxygen content delivered to the chamber is controlled anywhere between normal conditions of 20.9%, down as low as 11%, simulating an altitude of 5000 meters.
The equipment consists of an air compressor that delivers high pressure air to the hypoxic module. Inside the hypoxic module the high pressure air gets passed through a membrane constructed of special hollow fibres. The smaller Oxygen molecules are forced through the fibres leaving a higher concentration of Nitrogen or Hypoxic air, this air is then passed into the chamber where it is monitored by a special Oxygen sensor. Hypoxic air is delivered to the chamber rather that almost pure Nitrogen, this ensures safety is maintained and also provides greater mixing within the chamber with minimal fluctuations in Oxygen percentage.
All these parameter must be controlled accurately while the University staff conduct their trials on everything from feather dusters, to human beings, to full size vehicles. Because of the diverse testing requirements the air circulation within the room has to have controllable velocity and to be selectable from a turbulent air current to a laminar air current across the room.
In recent years DEL’s reputation has grown amongst the Universities and many sports science or environmentally controlled rooms have been installed both in the UK and overseas. This experience and reputation made DEL an obvious choice as the supplier to the NPARU and prime contractors Leadbitter Construction.
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