Institution news
As the UK Government target to reach net zero carbon emissions by 2050, many, if not all, companies are looking at ways to reuse waste energy and reuse this energy within the business.
With this in mind, the Institution's upcoming conference on HVAC engineering is a unique opportunity for engineers to discuss these and other challenges with HVAC design, management and maintenance and understand the lessons learned from recent projects across multiple engineering sectors. Ahead of the conference, we caught up with Norman Rhodes, consulting engineer for HVAC systems, who will be sharing his methodology for fire modelling with road tunnels and best practice for risk reduction at design stage.
Q: What are the main challenges facing the industry at the moment and what are the most common issues you hear from colleagues?
Norman Rhodes (NR): My work is mainly in the USA, so I speak from that perspective. There is too much reliance on the satisfaction of standards requirements and this can exclude creative thinking. In the simulation and modelling area the objective is to confirm that the standards criteria are met, not to necessarily understand the underlying knowledge that the model could yield.
Q: What key topics are you excited to speak about?
NR: The “moving target” of tunnel ventilation design – the changing factors that influence tunnel safety. The challenges of tunnel rehabilitation projects.
Q: Who else are you most interested in hearing from on the programme, and why?
NR: There are a number of old friends talking at the seminar and I’m looking forward to catching up with them. However, I could probably give their talks for them, so I am most interested to hear from those speakers who do not work in the transportation field. I often find there is much to learn from the design approaches in other disciplines than can carry across to my own.
Q: What is your top tip for engineers working in similar roles to your own?
NR: Well, it was written on my University building wall and I’ve carried it in my mind always, “To strive, to seek, to find and not to yield”
Q: Why is it important for engineers to join this conference?
NR: To get a broad view of what’s going on in a number of fields. Many seminars and conferences are quite narrow in scope; this one gives the opportunity to see if the grass is greener elsewhere. Participants also make contacts with like-minded professionals and this can create opportunities for collaboration and career growth.
Q: What developments are you most interested in for the future and why?
NR: Well, actually, it’s weather forecasting. From a modelling perspective the science of weather forecasting is fascinating. The validation of models is a challenge – sparse input data from weather stations seeding mathematical models – the outcomes are very important given the intensity of recent hurricanes and the current political climate apropos climate change. It also has an influence on HVAC in the future.
Event details
About HVAC Engineering: Design, Commissioning and Operational Considerations for Large Infrastructure takes place 3-4 March 2020, in London.
Join this two-day event to learn from experts in nuclear, construction, pharmaceutical, data centres, railway, commercial buildings, biomedical, and tunnelling. Hear best practice that will address challenges across HVAC engineering with a core focus on system modelling, temperature control strategies and approaches to optimise energy efficiency.<./p>
To find out more and book your place visit www.imeche.org/hvac