ACR Journal

CMYK / .ai CMYK / .ai CMYK / .ai Deatker, who joined Wimbledon after the completion of the Centre Court project, says: “For me, it has acted as a working model. The architects and engineers studied dierent options and concepts and once it was decided that the cooling equipment would be better located in the roof, that’s when we engaged with Aermec. Energy centre “Centre Court had the challenge to design a completely new type of retractable roof on a 100-year-old building, which maximised the sunlight on the court. No.1 Court was a dierent set of circumstances altogether. It was a challenge to expand the building and add a retractable roof, all within tight timescales and delivering an operational stadium every year for each Championships. The pressure was about certainty; the retractable roof, the new hospitality suites and the stadium acoustics.’’ “For Centre Court, all the chillers are located away from the stadium but there was no obvious location for No.1 Court. We decided to put them within the structure, which menat the acoustic requirements were significantly greater.’’ Although the two biggest show courts at Wimbledon are used exclusively for the The Wimbledon complex showing No.1 Court with the roof closed and Centre Court behind acrjournal.uk two-week Championships, the cooling capacity is used elsewhere. Deatker said: “We have really looked at our whole sustainability policy and we are using the cooling plant as part of an estate- wide energy centre. All the cooling in the museum and o‡ces will come from here and we will use the plant to feed other areas of the estate as we expand. The o‡ces and museum will give it a base load all year round, so we can cycle the chillers to give them load to work against throughout year, which helps with maintenance and resilience.’’ Aermec’s special relationship with the AELTC now looks certain to continue, with new chillers already delivered for a forthcoming planned upgrade of the Centre Court equipment. Deatker said: “Aermec has been a good company to work with and it was clear to see how much eort went into the whole project. To me that gives a great culture to the company that aligns with the culture we have here. We are about quality; delivering something that exceeds expectations and works when it needs to work. It was a good fit.’’ www.aermec.co.uk One of the key challenges was ensuring that the required levels of temperature and humidity could be met and the grass could also be insulated from moisture, preventing players from slipping during play. Sensors are embedded in the edge of the grass court and further sensors are located in the roof trusses to monitor moisture and temperature levels. When the roof is closed, the system drives down the humidity level to around 50% RH to ensure no condensation can occur on the grass playing surface, or on the roof structure. The priority for the system is the grass and to ensure the air movement does not interfere with the movement of the tennis ball. All this has been modelled by ME Engineers using computational fluid dynamics. Deatker explained: “The air has to be blown in such a way that there is no noise, no background hissing on the television broadcast. It has to be at a speed that keeps the grass dry but is slow enough that it doesn’t aect the ball toss or ball movement. You’re dealing with a number of dierent parameters, including the architecture of the court itself. “Aermec has provided a solution which delivers in terms of air temperature, humidity, speed and noise to be projected by the nozzles down at court level. We’re trying to deal with a sporting environment where professional athletes would notice if there was some unusual air movement.’’ Wimbledon Fact Around 300 people work at the AELTC year-round, with an additional 6,000 employed for the duration of The Championships. AIR CONDITIONING 19

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