The main Sense-City equipment produces an atmosphere under controlled conditions. With a working volume of 3 200m3, the 200 ton climatic chamber is mobile. It is based on 18 bogies and can be moved from one experimental area to another in less than 45 minutes.
These experimental areas both cover 400m² on the ground. One of them has a pit which required 700m3 of concrete and 120 tons of reinforcement to build it, giving it outstanding leaktightness properties. This pit makes it possible to design and build scenarios that require an instrumented basement.
The climate chamber took about a year and a half to build between January 2016 and May 2017, followed by periods of testing and thermal calibrations. The group that won the public design and production contract, consisting of BIA, Verdoïa, Illimelgo and Scoping, was responsible for building this facility, the only one of its kind in the world because of its variety of controlled parameters and its flexible use.
The technical characteristics of the climate chamber:
Thermal:
- Temperature control from -10° C to + 40° C by means of cooling coils and electrical heaters.
- Thermocontrolled ceiling from -10° C to + 40° C independent of the temperature of the room, to give day/night or clear/cloudy type cycles.
Humidity and rain:
- HR control from 10% to over 95% by spraying water and cooling coils.
- Simulation of 2 types of rain (drizzle or storm).
- Thermalisation of rain from + 5° C to + 30° C.
Sunshine
- Solar radiation generated by thirty 2000 W lamps over a portion of the roof.
Pollution
- Introduction of gaseous pollutants (SO2, CO2 and NO2).