This thesis consists of two different research problems. In the first one, the aim is to model and simulate a solar-powered, single-effect, absorption refrigeration system using a flat-plate solar collector and LiBr-H2O mixture as the working fluid. The cooling capacity and the coefficient of performance of the system are analyzed by varying all independent parameters, namely: evaporator pressure, condenser pressure, mass flow rate, LiBr concentration, and inlet generator temperature. The cooling performance of the system is compared with conventional vapor-compression systems for different refrigerants (R-134a, R-32, and R-22). The cooling performance is also assessed for a typical year in Tampa, Florida. Higher COP values are obtained for a lower LiBr concentration in the solution. The effects of evaporator and condenser pressures on the cooling capacity and cooling performance are found to be negligible. The LiBr-H2O solution shows higher cooling performance compared to other mixtures under the same absorption cooling cycle conditions. For typical year in Tampa, Florida, the model shows a constant coefficient of performance of 0.94. In the second problem, a numerical model is developed for a typical food retail store refrigeration/HVAC system to study the effects of indoor space conditions on supermarket energy consumption. Refrigerated display cases are normally rated at a store environment of 24ºC (75ºF) and a relative humidity of 55%. If the store can be maintained at lower relative humidity, significant quantities of refrigeration energy, defrost energy and anti-sweat heater energy can be saved. The numerical simulation is performed for a typical day in a standard store for each month of the year using the climate data for Tampa, Florida. This results in a 24 hour variation in the store relative humidity. Using these calculated hourly values of relative humidity for a typical 24 hour day, the store relative humidity distribution is calculated for a full year. The annual average supermarket relative humidity is found to be 51.1%. It is shown that for a 5% reduction in store relative humidity that the display case refrigeration load is reduced by 9.25%, and that results in total store energy load reduction of 4.84%. The results show good agreement with available experimental data.

This dissertation is a study of the architecture of commodity capital: the display window. Taking as a starting point the work of Henri Lefebvre and Goerg Simmel, this dissertation understands the shop window to be a mode of display, what I define as “the logic of the vitrine,” that has shaped the way the world appears. Tracing a genealogy from the Parisian Arcades to the twentieth-century department store, this project explores the relationships between gender, sexuality, race, and architecture. Feminist critiques of commodity desire and display illuminate how the shop window is as important to our understandings of capitalism as is the commodity. Through feminist, queer, postcolonial, and anti-racist readings of material and commodity culture, this dissertation considers the shop window to be a site of subject formation. This dissertation also examines how designers, artists, and architects have explored the display of the shop window through a series of case studies, including Marina Abramovic’s Role Exchange, Gene Moore’s “drag” in Bonwit Teller’s shop windows, the making of a black mannequin, and Lynn Hershman Leeson’s site-specific installation 25 Windows. This dissertation concludes with a consideration of the architectural role reversals of the shop window and the gallery; the work of Silvia Kolbowski and Elmgreen and Dragset’s Prada Marfa ground this analysis. Artists have disrupted the display of the shop window, transforming the architecture of commodity capital into a space for resistance and critique.