Water temperature calculation of glass facade

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Discussion Overview

The discussion revolves around the calculation of water temperature changes within a glass facade system designed for architectural purposes. The focus is on estimating temperature variations throughout the year to determine when a thermochromic reaction will occur due to the interaction of water, copper elements, and acidic rain.

Discussion Character

  • Exploratory
  • Technical explanation
  • Conceptual clarification
  • Debate/contested

Main Points Raised

  • One participant questions the appropriateness of trusting calculations for the described system, suggesting that the complexity of the materials and reactions involved may make accurate modeling difficult.
  • Another participant raises concerns about the temperature threshold for the chemical reaction, questioning whether it only occurs above 50°C and what implications this has for light transmission when temperatures fall.
  • The original poster expresses uncertainty about the reaction's temperature requirements but indicates a conceptual approach to the project, mentioning a system designed to recirculate water and replace copper elements to facilitate the reaction.
  • There is an acknowledgment of the potential complications in modeling the system due to the various factors at play, including the nature of the water and the materials involved.

Areas of Agreement / Disagreement

Participants do not reach a consensus on the feasibility of calculations for the temperature changes or the specifics of the chemical reaction involved. Multiple competing views and uncertainties remain regarding the reaction conditions and modeling accuracy.

Contextual Notes

Limitations include the complexity of the chemical reactions, the influence of biological elements in the acidic water, and the challenges in accurately modeling the interactions between the materials involved.

Ioana Gherghel
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Hello everybody
I am an architecture student working on a facade system and because I do not have much physics knowledge I stumbled across a question I can't answer myself:
If my facade is actually a thin parallelipiped glass tank filled with water, how do I measure the temperature changes of the water inside it throughout a year?

This is a key question for my project because I am aiming at making it a thermochromic facade: because it is pierced through with copper elements and instead of pure water it would be filled with acidic water from the acid rain falling on my site, when the temperature of the water inside the facade would reach 50°C the copper and the acid would start reacting and turning the water blue, therefore cooling the interior by shading it.

The size of the facade is 2500 height x 5000 width x 15mm depth.
Knowing the climate of the site and the number of hours of sunlight shining directly on one of the 2500x5000 side and ignoring details like the materials the glass comes in contact with, what calculation could I do to estimate the temperature of the water throughout the year so that I can estimate when the facade would get blue?

Any help is appreciated. I went around the forum (and the internet) and found some threads that touch on this topic but unfortunately the answers were in a too advanced physics language for me to understand what's being suggested..
Thank you
 
Science news on Phys.org
Fifty C? "Cool?"
 
Honest opinion? I don't think I would trust any calculation - a glass tank with protrusions that are copper with a coating of some copper salts, water than is acid rain (and with probable biologic elements) and some sort of chemical reaction going on - getting the description right of what I am modeling seems practically impossible. I'd be thinking prototypes and measurement.
 
I'm not a chemist but are you sure the reaction only occurs above 50C? And what happens when the temperature fall? Don't you want it to let light through again? I don't think it's a reversible reaction but I might be wrong.
 
Thanks for the replies guys :)

From the information I managed to find the reaction needs heating to take place, I am not 100% sure about it though either. I am going conceptual with this project :))
Indeed it is not a reversible reaction, I've made a system to recirculate the water and also to replace the copper elements so the reaction could take place again freshly :D

Ah I was afraid that it would be more complicated than what I had in mind.
 

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