D. Andrane
sure mound types of termites Building on nests has long been considered a form of built-in natural climate control. This approach is of interest to architects and engineers keen to design greener, more energy efficient buildings that mimic these principles. Decades of research have been spent modeling how these mounds work.a new paper A paper published in the journal Frontiers in Materials provides new evidence in support of an integrated system model in which mounds, nests and their tunnels work together like lungs.
Perhaps the most famous example of the influence of termite mounds in architecture is the east gate building in Harare, Zimbabwe. This is the largest commercial and shopping complex in the country, but with no central air conditioning and minimal heating systems, it consumes less than 10 percent of the energy a conventional building of its size consumes. architect Mick Pearce His 1990s design was famously based on the cooling and heating principles used in the area’s termite mounds, which serve as termite fungus farms. Fungi are their main food source.
Conditions must be suitable for fungi to thrive. As such, termites must maintain a constant temperature of 87°F in an environment where outdoor temperatures range from 35°F at night to 104°F during the day. Biologists have long suggested that this could be done by creating a series of heating and cooling vents throughout the mound that open and close during the day to keep the temperature inside constant. The Eastgate Building relies on a similar system of well-placed vents and solar panels.
Termite mounds come in many different varieties depending on their type, making it a little more difficult to pinpoint a universal principle. for example, in 2019Scientists at Imperial College London studied different types of African termite mounds common to Senegal and Guinea. Because this species does not cultivate fungi, their mounds lack the characteristic chimney- and window-like openings of the termite mounds in Zimbabwe that inspired Pierce’s Eastgate building design. There are no visible openings at all. Instead, it has holes. This is a natural result of the way mounds are built by stacking sand pellets mixed with termite saliva and soil. These pores help the structure “breathe” and also help it dry faster after heavy rain.
In the case of termite mounds in Zimbabwe, the exact mechanism has long been a matter of debate. Is it a type of induced flow (aka “”)stack effect“), the fact that the heat from the colony’s inhabitants causes the air to rise and escape out through the mound’s vents (thermosiphon flow), or a combination of them? Alternatively, you may need a different kind of model.
Written by Scott Turner, a physiologist at the State University of New York, Syracuse, and Rupert Soar, at Nottingham Trent University 2008 paper He claimed that Pierce relied on faulty assumptions when designing the Eastgate Building. In particular, there is no hard evidence that termites regulate nest temperature. Pierce’s designs were successful nonetheless, but Turner and Thor are “not merely life-inspired buildings, biomimetic buildings, but in a sense as alive as their inhabitants and the living nature incorporated into them.” I was planning a building that
This latest paper by Soar and David Andréen of Lund University in Sweden explores an alternative hypothesis originally proposed by Turner. in 2001. In this scenario, the termite mound is one component of a larger integrated system that incorporates a complex grid-like network of mounds, subterranean nests, and excavated tunnels known as the ‘exit complex’, and is selectively It can act as an airflow driver. . Turner envisioned this system as a functional analogue of the lung, which takes in oxygen and expels carbon dioxide. In practice, this is a polyphase gas exchanger.
D. Andrane
Termites can also evaporate excess water faster after it rains by carrying and depositing it around exit tunnels. These tunnels are most heavily ventilated by the wind, promoting evaporation without upsetting the oxygen and carbon dioxide balance within the hive.
Thor and Andrane wanted to demonstrate that the exit complex could be used to facilitate the flow of air, heat and moisture in architectural designs. “When you ventilate a building, you need to maintain the delicate balance of temperature and humidity produced inside without impeding the movement of stale air to the outside and fresh air to the inside.” Soa said. “Most HVAC systems struggle with this. Here we simply have a structured interface that allows the exchange of breathing gases caused by the concentration difference between one side and the other. This way the internal state is maintained.”
