contaminant removal effectiveness

Measurement method for ventilation effectiveness, more specifically, for contaminant removal effectiveness with a point source corresponding to infector is analysed in this study with tracer gas measurements and infection risk calculations. Ventilation effectiveness is needed in infection risk-based ventilation design to take into account air distribution methods deviating from fully mixing. Tracer gas measurements were conducted with two source location in six non-residential spaces.

Diffuse ceiling ventilation is a novel air distribution concept, where the space above a suspended ceiling is used as a plenum and fresh air is supplied into the occupied zone through perforations in the suspended ceiling panels. Due to the low momentum supply, the airflow in the room is driven by buoyancy force generated by heat sources. The previous studies indicate that the diffuse ceiling ventilation system can effectively eliminate the draught risk in the occupied zone and provide a comfortable indoor environment even with low-temperature supply.

Nowadays, indoor air quality has become a major concern. Regarding the fact that people spend most of their time indoors, it is necessary to study the performance of the ventilation system in order to limit the risks on occupants’ health. This study evaluates the ventilation effectiveness of supply-only ventilation (SOV) and extract-only ventilation (EOV) in terms of air exchange efficiency and contaminants removal effectiveness. These indicators are measured as function of air change rate and inlet/outlet devices positions using the gas tracer technic.

The effect on ventilation effectiveness parameters of the recirculation of air is investigated. The results of work with respect to air change effectiveness parameters is explained and extended to the effect of recirculation on the contaminant removal effectiveness parameter of local air quality index. It is demonstrated, first with respect to a simple system with one supply and exhaust and then by extension to a system with multiple exhausts, that it is possible to calculate the effect of recirculation by means of a simple algebraic expression.

Ventilation system has to be design in order to strike a balance between indoor air quality and energy requirements.So, the ventilation efficiency can be considered as a major issue to deal with this objective. In order to assess the efficiency of pollutant elimination from a room, a methodological approach using CPD has been developed. It is based both on local and global indexes. These indexes take into account the distribution of pollutant concentration inside room and the mean concentration at the exhaust with respect to the occupant location.

There are many indices to evaluate the ventilation characteristics of the ventilated rooms. These indices are classified into air change efficiency and contaminant removal effectiveness. In order to know how to use many indjces for a good understanding of the characteristics of the concerned ventilation system, the values of various efficiencies under some typical air flow conditions with isothermal condition are compared. The local mean age distributions and local contaminant concentrations are measured with tracer gas technique in a scaled model of the room ventilated mechanically.

Several new scales have been developed to quantify fresh air diffusion and contaminant dispersion in ventilated spaces. The local purging effectiveness is proposed for analyzing the individual contribution of each supply opening for a multi-inlet system. The local specific contaminant-accumulating index is defined to indicate the tolerance of a ventilation flow to contaminants. Furthermore, the regional purging flow rate, Up, is re-embodied in a simple expression different from the previous description.

In order to improve the indoor air quality a change in the ventilation system is often one of the actions. The mean ventilation effectiveness or contaminant removal effectiveness is then often presented as a measure. Great care should however be taken when evaluating a system using these parameters. Measurements have shown that in displacement ventilation the mean ventilation effectiveness can fluctuate very much for the same air flow, the same cooling load, the same inlet - outlet devices and the same height of the tracer gas supply.