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A laboratory method to simulate natural exposure of roofing materials has been reported in a companion article. In the current article, we describe the results of an international, nine-participant interlaboratory study (ILS) conducted in accordance with ASTM Standard E691-09 to establish the precision and reproducibility of this protocol. The accelerated soiling and weathering method was applied four times by each laboratory to replicate coupons of 12 products representing a wide variety of roofing categories (single-ply membrane, factory-applied coating (on metal), bare metal, field-applied coating, asphalt shingle, modified-bitumen cap sheet, clay tile, and concrete tile). Participants reported initial and laboratory-aged values of solar reflectance and thermal emittance. Measured solar reflectances were consistent within and across eight of the nine participating laboratories. Measured thermal emittances reported by six participants exhibited comparable consistency. For solar reflectance, the accelerated aging method is both repeatable and reproducible within an acceptable range of standard deviations: the repeatability standard deviation sr ranged from 0.008 to 0.015 (relative standard deviation of 1.2-2.1%) and the reproducibility standard deviation sR ranged from 0.022 to 0.036 (relative standard deviation of 3.2-5.8%). The ILS confirmed that the accelerated aging method can be reproduced by multiple independent laboratories with acceptable precision. This study supports the adoption of the accelerated aging practice to speed the evaluation and performance rating of new cool roofing materials.

Engineering the architecture of materials is a new and very promising approach to obtain vibration isolation properties. The biggest challenge for lattice structures exhibiting vibration isolation properties is the trade-off between compactness and wide and low-frequency bandgaps, i.e., frequency ranges where the propagation of elastic or acoustic waves is prohibited. Here, we, both numerically and experimentally, propose and demonstrate a new design concept for compact metamaterials exhibiting extraordinary properties in terms of wide and low frequency bandgap and structural characteristics. With its 4 cm side length unit cell, its bandgap opening frequency of 1478 Hz, its band-stop filter behavior in the range 1.48–15.24 kHz, and its structural characteristics, the proposed 1 × 1 × 3 metastructure represents great progress in the field of vibration isolation and a very promising solution for hand-held vibration probes applications that were unattainable so far through conventional materials. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]