Category: 2014
Fig. 1: Solar absorption of colors.Cool roofs represent a simple solution that can save significant air-conditioning cost and help mitigate the urban heat island effect, especially in hot climates. Nobel Prize winner and former Secretary of Energy Stev…
Fig. 1: Winter in BostonOne of the strengths of our Energy3D CAD software is its 3D visualizations of energy transfer. These visualizations not only allow students to see science concepts in action in engineering design, but also provide informative fe…
This post needs no explanation. The images say it all.All these beautiful structures were designed from scratch (NOT imported from other sources) by Cormac Paterson using our Energy3D CAD software.He is only 16 years old. (We have his parents’ permissi…
Fig. 1: Swirling flows form between two opposite fans.A new type of object, “fan”, has been added to Energy2D to create and control fluid flows. This fan replaces the original implementation of fan that assigns a velocity to a solid part (which doesn’t…
Predicted and measured average daily insolation for 80 cities. In Parts I and II, we have documented our progress on solar radiation modeling with our Energy3D CAD software. In the past few weeks, our summer interns Siobhan Bailey from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and Shiyan Jiang from University of Miami, and I have collected data for […]
Figure 1: Empire State BuildingAn important objective of our Energy3D software is to explore how to create CAD software that support students to practice the full cycle of engineering design from conceptual design to detailed design in a single piece o…
Figure 1: Hypothetical student responses to an intervention. In the fourth issue this year, the International Journal of Engineering Education published our 19-page-long paper on the instructional sensitivity of computer-aided design (CAD) logs. This study was based on our Energy3D software, which supports students to learn science and engineering concepts and skills through creating sustainable […]
About a week ago, I reported our progress in modeling worldwide solar radiation with our Energy3D software. While our calculated insolation data for a horizontal surface agreed quite well with the data provided by the National Solar Radiation Data Base…
Figure 1: Moving sensors facing a rectangular radiator.The heat flux sensor in Energy2D can be used to measure radiative heat flux, as well as conductive and convective heat fluxes. Radiative heat flux depends on not only the temperature of the object …
Solar engineering and building design rely on accurate prediction of solar radiation at any given location. This is a core functionality of our Energy3D CAD software. We are proud to announce that, through continuous improvements of our mathematical mo…