Development of a membrane roofing system with integrated climate control for community shelters

In case of calamities and emergencies, shelters offer great relief to large groups of survivors. For community supporting functions the current sheltering solutions are not satisfactory. A humane and feasible solution should be developed to fill this niche. The research group product development has developed a flexible and low cost semi-permanent building system for dairy cattle. The roofing of the arched building consists of multiple layers of membranes. The system proved to be technically and financially feasible, therefore it was chosen to be translated to a Community Shelter for emergency situations. Consequently, the membrane roofing system has to be further developed into a system for active climate control. The building climate has to be controlled without the input of energy, due to the possible lack thereof on location. A similar case is the development of an Arched Stable for the breeding of pigs in the Netherlands. The internal climate conditions for both cases are, oddly enough, nearly alike. Both applications demand a stable indoor temperature of 20-25°C and a high level of indoor lighting. The ventilation rate for livestock is substantially larger because of air pollution, although both are extremely high compared to normal dwellings. To achieve a reliable indoor climate in all situations, the large ventilation rate proved to be the most critical and challenging boundary condition. The solution is sought in combining multiple layers of semi-transparent membranes. Layers filled with standing air provide insulation capacity. In between the insulation layers heat recovery by large laminar counter flows will provide zero energy pre-heating of indoor air. Calculations prove that the principle works efficiently. The concept will be tested on a small scale before scaling it up to real-time applications. If proven reliable, the community shelter with integrated climate control will set new standards to the quality of relief in emergency situations.