The BeTL Facility at Penn State

Wall Panel Testing - Ventilation Drying

Wall Panel : Wetting, Storage and Drying Considerations

Apparatus-Plexiglass Cladding (front)

Apparatus-Plexiglass Cladding (back)

Climate Chamber

Climate Chamber: Solar Simulation

General Purpose Component Test Facility

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Wall Panel Testing - Ventilation Drying

The Building Enclosure Test Laboratory (BeTL), located at CATO Park in State College, is a facility that was developed to conduct performance tests on building enclosure systems and their component parts. Test specimens can include: complete wall or roof assemblies or sub-assemblies, windows, and joints.

In the Building Enclosure Test Laboratory (BeTL), we have the following equipment:

• A large climate chamber to simulate enclosure elements (portions of a wall or roof, or windows or layers of material) under indoor and outdoor environmental conditions including real time solar effects.

• An airflow chamber to model ventilation in representative wall enclosure systems.

• A ventilation drying chamber to model the drying or wetting capabilities of the outside air for representative wall enclosure systems.

• A general-purpose enclosure test facility that enables us to test the performance of materials and enclosures under air pressure differentials, rain and temperature variations.  This comprises a blower fan, spray rack, and a refrigeration unit that can simulate a large array of climatic conditions. The laboratory is also outfitted with all the required measuring devices and data acquisition equipment to monitor temperature, airflow, water flow, pressure and relative humidity data. The blower fan can create static pressures of as high as 10kPa (≈210 psf) for structural testing. For in-service testing much lower positive and negative pressures can be imposed. These wind pressures can be cycled at a desired frequency in either positive or negative modes. The refrigeration system can lower the temperature of a test specimen to approximately -17°C (≈0°F) for cold weather testing. The water penetration test equipment consists of a spray rack that can completely cover the test specimen with water at a desired flow for a specified wind pressure.