The AML building is adjacent to the High Temperature Materials Laboratory (HTML) at ORNL, and takes advantage of chilled water, compressed air, and clean power supplied from the HTML. The site and building are designed to allow for future expansion to twice its present size, accommodating up to four additional instruments. The AML actually provides a pair of rooms for each microscope—an instrument room and an associated "control room," which contains the computers used to operate the microscope—and additional facilities for data analysis. This design effectively isolates an instrument from even the disturbing influence of human operators while critical imaging is being done. The Laboratory also contains a small sample preparation room, a lobby for visual displays, and a building office. All ancillary equipment (with the exception of the water chillers) is housed in a common service chase on a foundation isolated from the instrument rooms. A structurally isolated mechanical section houses the HVAC equipment for the Laboratory.

The foundation slabs and wall footings of the AML are placed on 8-foot engineered fill separated into layers by geotextile fabric. The building exterior is Exterior Insulation and Finish Systems construction.

Floor slabs in the instrument rooms are one-foot-thick reinforced concrete, and cover the full floor area of the room. Epoxy coated reinforcement bars are used to provide insulation and to minimize the possibility of magnetic fields caused by currents in the foundation. This slab-on-grade construction was deemed suitable because the site is inherently very quiet and provides exceptionally low vibration levels in the instrument rooms.

The instrument rooms section is constructed using a "house-in-house" design philosophy, with a shell built from 12-inch reinforced concrete masonry blocks. The roof height is 26' in the instrument bay section. The instrument and control rooms were built using 8-inch reinforced concrete blocks. This approach reduces the pressure differential, acoustic vibrations, and low-frequency vibrations produced by the wind moving over the building roof.

Acoustic noise in the instrument rooms is minimized by the application of sound absorbing material on all four walls and the ceiling. The primary ceiling height in the instrument rooms is 18'. A 13-foot dropped ceiling, consisting of egg-crate grid and two layers of porous duct liner material, was installed as an added noise-reduction feature. The dropped ceiling forms an air mixing plenum for the supply air, which enters through a pair of 12-inch diameter porous ducts that extend the length of the room.

A single 4' x 4' quadruple-paned window is provided in the wall between the instrument and control room. The control rooms have cloth-covered acoustic absorber panels on each wall to absorb noise from conversation and computer fans. With most of the heat-producing equipment located in the mechanical section, air supply to the instrument rooms can be minimal and is much more easily controlled to avoid sudden large fluctuations.

The separate, isolated mechanical section houses the AML utility equipment, the electrical load center, and the HVAC system for the instrument and control rooms. Each of the three air handling units are installed on their own isolated slabs. Also, a separate isolated slab is provided for the water chillers that supply cooling water to the four instrument rooms.

Variable frequency drives are used to provide tight temperature and airflow control. To avoid the temperature variations caused by cycling air conditioning, the instrument rooms are relatively large (17' x 17' x 18') and have only the minimum number of heat-producing sources. Several measures reduce or eliminate the effect of the electrical services on the microscopes. The electrical load center is located as far as is practical from the instruments, and each instrument has its own ground system.

Clean power is supplied to the AML from a 75 kVA motor/generator (MG) set located in the HTML mechanical building. The MG set has uninterruptible power supply capability to provide power in the event of a power failure. This location keeps the noisy pumps, compressors, and the MG/UPS set totally isolated from the AML.

Project Information
Building Owner:		Oak Ridge National Laboratory
Owner Contact:		John A. Mayo, Senior Engineering Project Manager, UT-Battelle
Building Location:		Oak Ridge, Tennessee UNITED STATES
Project Type:		New Construction
Principal Building Function:		Electron Microscopy Research
Project Delivery Method:		General Contractor
Project Timeline		Jun 2001 Planning Start Aug 2001 Design Start Jan 2003 Construction Start Mar 2004 Completion Last known status: Completed
Construction Cost:		$2,889,640
Cost Per Sq. Ft:		$419
		About These Cost Figures
Building Information
Project Includes:		Engineering Government Laboratory Laboratory: Research Research
Total GSF:		6,900
Total NSF:		3,200
Efficiency:		46%
Building Services:		compressed air, chilled water, fire protection (water), hot water
Special Equip:		ACEM Transmission Electron Microscope; National Transmission Electron Microscope (NTEAM); VG603 Electron Microscope; VG501 Electron Microscope
Power Req:		Normal electrical power: 480 V, 3phase, 3wire nominal 400 amp service Emergency electrical power: 480 V, 3 phase, 3 wire nominal 50 amp service Clean power: 75 KVA, 480 V, 3 phase clean power motor generator/ uninterruptible power set Minimize 60 Hz electromagnetic fields A separate isolated grounding system for each Instrument room Incandescent 120 volt DC lighting for the Instrument section of the building
HVAC Req:		Room air motion shall be 5cm/sec (9.7 fpm) or less Mechanical air handling system shall be attenuated to NC 20 or less HVAC control system shall achieve temperature stability of 20 degrees C +/- 0.5 degree C (68 degrees +/- 0.8 degree F) Relative humidity in the Instrument and Control rooms shall be 55% +/- 5%
Structure/Foundation:		Strip footings with slab on grade
Project Team
Architect		Lord, Aeck & Sargent
Profile Created 08/11/2004
Last Updated 05/12/2006
About the Reported Cost Figures The cost figures reported are supplied by the firms that submitted these projects for publication, which in most cases are the designers or builders. Whereas these sources are intimately familiar with their projects, they may not be fully aware of the owners' finally-realized and recorded costs. In some cases, costs are truly and completely accounted for, and in others they represent a near approximation of the final costs. Costs have not been adjusted for year of construction, nor has any attempt been made to make regional cost adjustments. Further, costs are not comparable on any kind of detailed standard costing model. Hence, it is possible for the cost of one building to include a steam boiler, while the cost of a comparable building might not include the boiler, if steam is being supplied from an already existing campus grid. Or, in another case, a building might include excess boiler capacity to supply steam to another building. Some submittals include fees or unusual site improvements as part of the construction costs, which others do not.