MAE Seminar: Research in the Pursuit of High-Performance Buildings by Jim Braun

Details

Jim Braun, PhD
Herrick Professor of Engineering
Director of the Center for High Performance Buildings
Purdue University

In-person Location: MAE-A 303 or
Zoom Meeting ID: 919 4580 5586 Passcode: MAE

MAE Faculty Host: Prabir Barooah

Buildings account for over 40% of primary energy usage, 70% of electricity, and 40% of carbon emissions within the U.S. Although people typically spend more than 90% of their lives inside of buildings, indoor environments are generally less healthy than the outdoors and can contribute to the transmission of airborne viruses such as COVID-19. In spite of these driving factors, high performance building solutions are still the exception rather than the rule. To date, it has been challenging to deliver affordable high-performance buildings at scale and tailored to specific design and performance requirements. The importance of addressing the challenges have been increasingly recognized by government funding agencies and companies leading to a significant growth in research that could enable more cost-effective high-performance buildings. With this in mind, this talk presents recent research within the Center for High Performance Buildings at Purdue. It includes a review of some of the primary factors driving current research efforts and presents examples of recent and ongoing research on a range of diverse topics, including alternative low-GWP heat pumping technologies to improve energy efficiency and reduce environmental impact, smart building and equipment controls, automated equipment diagnostics, modular buildings, new building materials, etc.

Biography
Jim Braun has over 45 years of experience in both university and industrial settings. He has worked as a development engineer for refrigeration equipment, a software developer for building and energy system simulation tools, a researcher and manager for the control systems software development, and a University Professor. Dr. Braun is currently the Herrick Professor of Engineering at Purdue University, Director of the Purdue Center for High Performance Buildings, and is a faculty of the Schools of Mechanical and Civil Engineering. His research combines the use of computer modeling, optimization, and experiments to study and improve the performance of building systems and related equipment. He has published over 450 papers with over 15,000 citations to his published works, co-authored a textbook, and has 5 patents with 5 additional patents in process. He has been PI or co-PI on over 130 research projects at Purdue with funding over $50M. He is a fellow of both ASHRAE (American Society of Heating, Refrigerating, and Air Conditioning Engineers) and IBPSA (International Building Performance Simulation Association).