The present work describes the motion of aqueous humor through the anterior chamber and the trabecular drainage system, considering several distributions of the collector channels. The 3D computational model, implemented into the open-source software, was reconstructed from an optical coherence tomography. The model has been employed to simulate the aqueous humor dynamics considering buoyancy effects. The presence of the anterior chamber, the trabecular meshwork, and the Schlemm's canal were taken into consideration with 14 different distributions of collector channels. The influence of collector channels position on the intraocular pressure and shear stress has been analyzed, for a healthy and a glaucomatous condition. Aqueous humor velocity, pressure, temperature, wall shear stress, skin friction coefficient and Nusselt number, are presented for the different cases. The results indicate that the position of the collector channels has a strong influence on the wall shear stress on the Schlemm's canal and collector channels.
With the recent need to decrease energy use and promote indoor thermal comfort in overheating conditions, attention has been drawn to the passive cooling function of courtyards. This paper aims to determine the effect of proportions and orientations of courtyards on the indoor thermal performance of traditional houses in a warm, humid region so that this could guide further improvement and reinterpretation of this building type. The results of this parametric study were obtained through computer simulations of different cases with the aim to determine the influence of orientation, courtyard size and proportions on the indoor thermal energy balance and thermal comfort of a traditional building in a warm-humid region. Rather than promote passive cooling in the building, the findings suggest that the courtyard greatly increases solar heat gain, raising the temperature during the day. Higher solar heat gains and ventilation rates were observed in the courtyard cases with greater width and length. Nevertheless, this does not cause important differences in the average operative temperature of the entire building between the cases. As for orientation, lower heat gains were obtained in courtyards with the long axis-oriented east to west. Regardless of the cases, the study finally emphasizes the importance of the inhabitants controlling the opening of windows in the enclosed rooms since this could decrease the temperature by 1.1 °C from night to the early morning (23.00 hrs to 11.00hrs) and thus influence its thermal comfort. Conversely, opening the windows outside that time-lapse could cause an increase in temperature and more hours above the upper comfort limit.
Glaucoma is a progressive and a degenerative eye disease that gradually deteriorates the vision. The origin of glaucoma is still under debate. Recent studies report that 50% of the aqueous humor outflow resistance resides on collector channels and Schlemm's canal (SC). This paper provides a descriptive analysis of the aqueous humor outflow through the anterior chamber, the trabecular meshwork (TM) and the SC. The aim of this work is to determine the influence of the collector channels position on the intraocular pressure (IOP) and its contribution to the development of glaucoma. Pressure and wall shear stress distributions are presented for four cases. The first case has an arrangement of collector channels according to micro CT (Gong and Francis, 2014). The remaining cases have an symmetrical distribution; case 2 has all open quadrants (AOQ), cases 3 have three quadrants completely open and just one quadrant semi closed (SCQ), and finally cases 4 consider that a quadrant is completely closed (CQ). Symmetrical and micro CT cases have 29 collector channels. The results show that the position and the opening of the collector channels have a strong influence on the IOP.
This study investigated an indirect evaporative cooling system (IECS) to control latent heat loss on roof ponds by increasing the evaporation rates on wet fabric membranes. The cooling potential of the proposed system was experimentally tested in a real environment and it was compared against a roof pond and a floating fiber (gunny bags) to provide an efficient model for buildings in hot and humid climates. Dry bulb temperatures (DBT) are presented for four experimental models. Solar irradiance, ambient and indoor dry bulb temperatures, and relative humidity (RH) were measured for seven days in each of the following climate conditions: hot sub-humid (mean DBT 27.3 °C and mean RH 72%), hot humid (mean DBT 27.1 °C and mean RH 81%), and warm sub-humid (mean DBT 25.2 °C and mean RH 68%). There were no significant variations in thermal performance between the examined devices under hot humid conditions; however, the wet fabric device had superior thermal performance under sub-humid conditions when compared to the other IECSs. In the three climatic scenarios where the proposed system was tested, the wet fabric managed to reduce the indoor air temperature by 6.6 °C, 5.3 °C, and 5.1 °C, respectively, as compared to the outdoor air temperatures.