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Vascular Window Keeps Room Cooler
仿血管窗戶讓室內更涼爽
Windows can offer beautiful natural light. But on bright days, the sunlight can bake a room. That trapped heat drives up air conditioning use and energy costs.
窗戶能提供漂亮的自然光線。但是在陽光強烈的時候，陽光會烤的室內很熱。這使得人們使用空調，耗費能源。
Now, a team of researchers at Harvard’s Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering has designed cooler windows—by mimicking nature.
現在，哈佛大學威斯生物工程研究所的一個研究團隊通過模仿自然界設計了更涼爽的窗戶。
When animals get hot, tiny capillaries near the surface of the skin dilate. Circulating blood helps transfer the body heat out to the air.
動物熱的時候，體表的毛細血管擴張。血液循環幫助將體內熱量散到體外。
In that spirit, the researchers created a super-thin silicone-rubber layer with a network of tiny sealed channels. When the rubber is stretched over a window, it’s completely transparent.
根據這個原理，研究人員發明了一種超薄的硅酮橡膠層，上面有細小管道。當橡膠在窗戶上繃緊的時候是透明的。
Water running through the channels absorbs heat and transfers it to the outside air. In the researchers’ model, a large window at 100 degrees Fahrenheit can be lowered to a much more manageable 86 degrees. And the energy needed to pump the water is far less than what would be needed to cool the room equivalently with air conditioning. The research is in the journal Solar Energy Materials and Solar Cells.
從管道流過的水吸收熱量將其排出室外。在研究人員的模型中，一個溫度在100華氏度的大窗戶溫度能降到更舒服的86華氏度。使水流動的需要的能源遠小于空調所需能源。研究發表在《太陽能材料和太陽能電池》雜志上。
The team is working with architects to model energy savings if the microfluidic channels were included in an entire building’s windows. Which could warm consumers’ hearts.
如果細小管道能包括在整棟建筑的窗戶上，那么這個團隊能節省能源。這會鼓舞消費者。
—Cynthia Graber
