UNIVERSITY OF MALTA
FACULTY FOR THE BUILT ENVIRONMENT
B.SC. (HONS.) BUILT ENVIRONMENT STUDIES
JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2013 EXAMINATION SESSION
YEAR 1
Unit Code: EVD1501
Unit Title: FUNDAMENTALS OF
ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE
Time: 09:15 – 10:45
Date: Wednesday 23rd January 2013
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ANSWER ANY FOUR QUESTIONS; USE A CALCULATOR WHEN REQUIRED
START THE ANSWER TO EACH QUESTION ON A FRESH PAGE
1.
What are the differences between scotopic and photopic vision for
different levels of lighting? Define three of the following units:
(i)
the lumen
(ii)
the candela
(iii)
luminous flux
(iv)
luminous efficacy
A school headmaster has commissioned you to re-design the façade of
his school to accommodate today’s use of computers in the classroom.
Discuss the importance of lighting design and its control in determining
visual comfort balanced with electricity consumption. Highlight your
answer with sketches and examples.
2.
Which are the principal four heat transfer mechanisms through buildings?
Define the U-value and the units used. Mention three characteristics that
influence this property of a material.
Consider a built external wall composed of an internal skin of 230mm soft
stone masonry and an external skin of 150mm concrete blockwork,
separated by an air cavity of 50mm. Describe how you would go about
working the overall U-value of the whole wall, given the elemental thermal
resistance k for each material.
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3.
In his studies of thermal comfort Fanger relates Metabolic rate M, sweat
rate E, and skin temperature tsk, in the following equations:
tsk, = 35.7 – 0.0276M [units: °C] …………………………..1.
E = 0.42[M-58]
[units: W/m2]………………………..2.
Discuss the importance of skin temperature (equation 1), and the
metabolic rate (equation 2). If the rate of energy loss/gain through
evaporation is 100 W/m2, what is the skin temperature? How would you
propose to modify this value for human comfort?
4.
In the prediction of the amount of sunlight for a given site anywhere on the
earth’s surface discuss the significance of three of the following
parameters:
(i)
latitude
(ii)
hour angle
(iii)
declination
(iv)
altitude
(v)
azimuth
Which are the three salient components affecting the amount of daylight
entering a room? Describe a procedure how you would measure this
factor for a cellar overlooking a courtyard house in Valletta.
5.
Define Reverberation Time and the formula used when the absorption
less than 0.2 seconds.
is
In an attempt to determine the reverberation time of your room at home
describe the methodology you would go through to arrive at a reasonably
good first approximation for frequencies of 125Hz, 500Hz and 4000Hz.
6.
Highlight the principal differences between a Cold Temperate Climate and
a Mediterranean Marine Climate, particularly in the context of controlling a
building’s indoor thermal environment. Describe the importance of three
salient characteristics when master planning a site in each climate.
Vernacular architecture is branded by three salient characteristics. List
these and describe their importance in the context of one case study as
illustrated in your coursework.
How would your building perform if it had to be ‘transferred’ into the other
temperature extreme?
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