Final Review…done.

The final review of the semester is over!  It went ok, and I am glad it is done.  I worked like crazy the past two weeks, and I was happy with my work.  The Perkins road overpass was definitely interesting but also a challenging site for me.   Hopefully I will get some photos on the blog soon.  On Wednesday we head back to Donnelly Park to present our work to the Community, it should be a good experience. Now for the final push these last two weeks!

Constructed wetlands

I did some research and found some useful information about constructed wetlands regarding the appropriate size, plants, etc.  For a small urban pocket wetland it looks like 7%  of the watershed area is neccessary.  Or roughly 10,00 sq. ft, if the watershed is the overpass end to end.

I’ll try to post the docs as pdfs to the blog.  But as of right now they are on the server under my name.

 

Perkins design

I am moving along with the design concept for the Perkins Road underpass.  The central feature will be a constructed wetland that treats the stormwater from I-10 and releases into a series of reflecting pools.  I am still working out the details, but it looks like the wetland has to be approxinately 7% of its watershed. So roughly 10,000 sq ft. if the treating the water along the length of I-10 from where the on-ramp crosses under it, to where I-10 meets back to grade by Duvic’s.  I think this is a reseaonable figure.  I would like to incorporate dichroic glass that changes color depending upon the angle of view, as well as to somehow bring what’s going on above (the traffic) back to the ground level. I haven’t figured that one out yet, we shall see.

Smart/reflective materials

Smart materials are materials that have one or more properties that can be significantly changed in a controlled fashion by exposure to light,  temperature, electric current, stress, and other external stimuli.

The large majority of apllicable materials are “chromics” or color changing materials.  However these materials really do not change color, they simply modify their optical properties by reflecting or absorbing or scattering, different wavelengths of light. Thereby creating the effect of changing colors.

• photochromics -change color when exposed to light
• thermochromics- changes color due to changes in termperture
• electrochromics – changes color when a voltage is applied (LCD’s are a related technology)
• mechanochromics – changes color due to applied stress
• chemochromics- changes color when exposed to certain chemicals

Below are two examples of materials that change color when exposed to different tempertures. Think “hypercolor shirts” if you guys remember those.  This material could be applied to show where people have touched or walked or made contact with a surface, it fades away as the temperture  cools back down.

 

Dichroic glass is another cool/smart material.  It changes color depending upon the view. On one side it may reflect blue light waves to your eye, while on another it may reflect gold light waves, while yet  another view could be purple, etc. This allows it to seemingly be a diferent color depending upon your view of the material. 

 

Dichroic glass could also be used to filter only a certain color of light through to a certain area.  This is the same technology as “transition” sunglasses.

 

Similarly there is radiant color film which can be applied to a surface.  The film changes color depending upon the vantage point.  For example, the same surface may appear a vibrant blue, yellow or red, depending on the viewer’s angle.

 

 View control film is also interesting.  As its name implies, it controls a view by obscuring the image behind it, only clearly showing when viewed from a pre-determined vantage point.

 

 View directional film is film that is seen from a certin angle, yet seems to dissappear (into a black surface, it is not a transparent material). The film itself is meant to be seen and then be hidden, revealing another surface or object in front of the film. 

 

Liquid Crystal technology can also be applied to a surface or object.  When electrically charged it can assemble into different color schemes, shapes, and forms.

The other category of Smart Materials are energy exchanging materials.  That is an energy is inputted into the material, and a different energy is the ouput.  Examples are LEDs (Light Emmitting Diodes), Photovoltaics (materials and devices that convert light energy into a mechanical or electrical energy, think solar power),  thermo electrics, memory shape alloys, etc.

While fiber-optics are not really a smart material, they are often grouped with them as it is an innovative material that is often utiized in conjuction with “smart materials”.

LED and fiber optic cloth, chair and wall:

 

 

 

LED TILES

 Another type is a responsive actuated sensory wall. When stress is applied (a touch to the surface) the wall reacts by either moving or changing color, or both.

 

Memory materials or metals have the ability to “remember” their shape either when a electric voltage is appplied and\or when a certain temperature is reached. The material can change into many different programmed forms and then back again, depending on the specific temperature or current applied.

 

Well, that about sums up what I have found for smart materials, mainly from  the book “Smart Materials and Technologies” and from the internet.  If I discover anything else I will post to the blog.

reflections

The first review for the Perkins Roads site is over.  I have had adequate time to recover, thus my belated blog post.  The review was exhibit style and it went well.  It was defintiley more laid back than a typical review and I think we all did a good job.  The next xhallenge is to move forward with a design for the site. The phenomena I focused on and documented was reflections.  The below picture should link to the final video. 

 

test

[ youtube=http://youtube.com/watch?v=IN9xV_kTITA]