Isothermal ball laboratories

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Isothermal ball laboratories
Ball laboratories

Ball laboratories

Data
place Berlin
builder Horst Welser
Peter Adolf Thiessen
Construction year 1959-1961
Coordinates 52 ° 25 '56.7 "  N , 13 ° 32' 11.4"  E Coordinates: 52 ° 25 '56.7 "  N , 13 ° 32' 11.4"  E
particularities
Monument (09076020)

The isothermal ball laboratories , also known as thermo-constant ball laboratories and in Berlin vernacular called Adlershofer Busen or Akademiebusen , were built from 1959 to 1961 for the Institute for Physical Chemistry of the German Academy of Sciences. The idea came from Peter Adolf Thiessen , the founder and from 1956 to 1964 director of the Institute for Physical Chemistry of the Academy of Sciences of the GDR . The architect of the ball laboratories was Horst Welser , director of the planning staff for numerous other objects on the premises of the Academy of Sciences of the GDR.

The colloquial terms "Adlershofer Busen" and "Akademiebusen" are derived from the characteristic shape and location on the former site of the Academy of Sciences in Adlershof .

Here isothermal experiments in the field of metallurgy were carried out with minimal temperature fluctuations. The results were intended for the aerospace industry. Johannisthal with its airfield and Adlershof was the center for aviation and flight research in Europe in the first half of the 20th century.

To ensure that the internal temperature remained almost constant (it only fluctuated by 0.01 ° C), an elaborate wall structure made of 10 cm thick reinforced concrete shells on the inside and thermal insulation of approx. 125 cm thickness (outside) was carried out.

Both ball laboratories are examples of the reinforced concrete shell construction of the GDR.

The isothermal ball laboratories are under monument protection (No. 09076020 ) and are therefore preserved as a monument on Rudower Chaussee thanks to the extraordinary architecture of the building. Prof. Karsten Peter Thiessen obtained the monument protection with the technical assistance of Horst Welser as a consultant at EGA (Development Company Adlershof, predecessor of WISTA Management Gesellschaft) in order to protect the unique building from the planned demolition.

concept

The first discussions about the construction of the institute and the infrastructure took place in Moscow in 1956 with the physical chemist Peter Adolf Thiessen and the responsible architect Horst Welser .

Thermo- constant ( isothermal ) rooms offer the possibility of a high-precision setting of the room temperatures and their constant maintenance. This makes it possible to investigate and monitor the “heat balance” of numerous chemical reactions, i. H. the measurement of heat given off or consumed by the respective system is possible.

The necessity of creating isothermal laboratories at what was then the Institute for Physical Chemistry of the AdW arose on the one hand from technical necessities and on the other hand from the requirement to conduct the necessary basic research.

When designing the Thermochemistry Department of the Institute for Physical Chemistry, different variants of laboratory rooms for thermal precision measurement were discussed. For the laboratory rooms with a long-term temperature constancy of at least 0.01 degrees at 20–22 ° C room temperature, the structural requirements should be created. Additional conditions were the exclusion of the presence of people during the measurements and the establishment of temperature constancy within 36 hours after completion of an experimental setup.

In the conception, thermal room insulation and passive securing of constancy through adiabasy were preferred, since at the end of the 1950s there were insufficient technical possibilities for implementation by means of air conditioning or air conditioning. their regulation excluded.

Further considerations led to the decision to solve the problem of thermal room insulation above ground as spherical structures with aluminum cladding. A sphere has the smallest surface area in relation to the volume of the room and aluminum is an excellent conductor of heat.

construction

Inside and outside one of the reinforced concrete spheres, insulation and regulation measures were designed to eliminate external temperature influences on the interior.

The structure was the same for both balls.

  • Reinforced concrete ring is supported by V-supports
  • The reinforced concrete ball has a diameter of 9 m and a thickness of 8 cm.
  • The lowest point in the ring is 1m above the ground.
  • Inside the reinforced concrete structure is a 1 m Piatherm ball.
  • The inner end is formed by 5 mm thick, welded aluminum segments.
  • A pipe system for tempered water is laid around the outside of the sphere at a distance of 20 cm (similar to the latitude).
  • This was stabilized by pneumatically applied shotcrete.
  • A 20 cm thick insulation layer made of Piatherm polystyrene foam was applied to the outside.
  • This is followed by the outer skin made of welded 5 mm thick pure aluminum segments.
  • The layers are arranged floating.
  • Inside the aluminum ball is a working platform on a tubular construction (stilt construction).
  • To improve the adaptation speed, the supply of temperature-controlled fresh air was provided.
  • The measurement rooms were accessed via a shared distributor bridge with calming chambers.
  • A model with a diameter of 1.5 m was available for the demanding construction phase.

After a construction period of two years, the balls were completed and handed over.

The production of thermal constancy only through insulation, however, had disadvantages for the process. Due to the construction of the measuring equipment, the period of time until equilibration to the starting temperature was too long. An active internal regulation had to be retrofitted.

  • Condition before the new building

  • Location: Corner of Rudower Chaussee / Am Studio (Europa Center)

  • Ball labs from the side

  • View from the street

  • entrance

  • Rear view

  • foundation

  • Notice board on the premises

Keeping the temperature constant

The concept of maintaining a constant temperature by circulating temperature-controlled liquid heating or cooling media in pipes in a spherical jacket proved to be technically too demanding at the beginning of the concept and was never implemented to the end. The reasons for this were the inadequate technical possibilities and economic, economic aspects.

An independent compromise was reached within 5 years. A temporary temperature control was installed in one of the spheres, which ultimately became the final solution. The self-construction of the temperature constancy control was carried out by Klaus Muscheites under the direction of Horst Peters, then head of the thermal laboratory of the Institute for Physical Chemistry .

The principle of active temperature control took place in the interior via a heater / cooler attached to the ceiling. The heating was electronically controlled with constant cooling output. In combination with 4 fans, an effective use of one of the thermal spheres was made possible. With 4 people in the room, the spread of the temperature values ​​was ± 0.006 degrees, between the floor and the ceiling it was less than 0.05 degrees.

use

The vibration damping of the sensitive measuring devices proved to be problematic during operation of the balls. Through the nearby street “Rudower Chaussee”, the mechanical vibrations of particularly heavy vehicles were transmitted to the supporting structure of the spheres resting on stilts.

Despite its many difficulties and problems, a sphere has been used for a long time for thermodynamic research. At room temperature, for example, the heat balance of the hardening of aluminum alloys (“duralumin” type) over weeks with temperature gradients of a few tenths of a Kelvin could be investigated.

With a change in the research focus at the Central Institute for Physical Chemistry of the AdW (ZIPC), thermo-constant rooms were no longer required. One of the spheres served as a storage room. The other sphere was used as an electronic measurement laboratory using the outer grounded aluminum shell.

Despite the narrow space, the balls were also used for internal skat tournaments and celebrations.

history

  • In 1956 the first discussions about the necessary infrastructure took place in Moscow between Peter Adolf Thiessen and the later architect Horst Welser , who was responsible for the construction .
  • 1958 a conception and planning arose.
  • In 1959/61 the laboratory for thermodynamics was built as the first part of the institute, including the two ball laboratories.
  • In 1963/64 a sphere was converted with active air conditioning from the inside.
  • In 1991, the processing of the ZIPC began in accordance with the Unification Agreement.
  • In 1998/1999 the ZIPC was torn down (dismantled).
  • The isothermal ball laboratories have been under monument protection since 2001 (No. 09076020 ).
  • In 2008 the new construction of the EUROPA-CENTER Adlerduo began in the Berlin-Adlershof Technology Park. Both ball laboratories are located on the property.
  • In 2018, EUROPA-CENTER will set up an information board on the historic ball laboratories in Adlershof. [1]

Web links

Commons : Isothermal Ball Laboratories  - Collection of Images
Sources used:

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Scientific-technical society Adlershof WITEGA (Hrsg.): On the history of the research association of the natural scientific, technical and medical institutions of the German Academy of Sciences in Berlin (Adlershof splitter). tape 5 , 1997, ISSN  1434-1638 , pp. from 91 .
  2. ↑ a b List of monuments in Berlin from the State Monuments Office. Landesdenkmalamt, March 24, 2017, accessed on February 14, 2018 : "09076020 Rudower Chaussee, two spherical thermal laboratories of the Institute for Physical Chemistry of the German Academy of Sciences in Berlin, 1959-60 by Karsten Peter Thiessen and Horst Welser Am Studio"
  3. ↑ Karsten Peter Thiessen, Horst Welser: The spherical thermal laboratories . In: WITEGA Research g. GmbH Adlershof (Hrsg.): Scientific-historical Adlershof splinters . 1996, ISSN  1434-1638 .
  4. ^ Scientific-technical society Adlershof WITEGA (Hrsg.): On the history of the research community of the natural scientific, technical and medical institutions of the German Academy of Sciences in Berlin (Scientific history Adlershof splitter) . tape 1 , 1996, ISSN  1434-1638 , pp. from page 125 .
  5. ↑ Karsten Peter Thiessen, Horst Welser: The spherical thermal laboratories . In: WITEGA Research g. GmbH Adlershof (Hrsg.): Scientific-historical Adlershof splinters . 1996, ISSN  1434-1638 .