contaminant source

In the preceding companion paper (Part I), a method with one sensor that could identify the indoor contaminant source location and strength in short time was presented. On the basis of further theoretical study, a method with two sensors is presented in this paper to identify contaminant source with higher accuracy. This paper demonstrates how to use the method with two sensors to find the location of contaminant source in a threedimensional room. In addition, the accuracy of two types of methods was compared.

In case contaminants are released in occupied rooms, it is necessary to determine the contaminant source location and strength rapidly so that prompt response measures can be taken to protect indoor occupants. This paper presents a new method with one sensor to identify the contaminant source location and strength. It completes the time-consuming computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations before the release event, and finds the source in real time during the event. In addition, an index called “correctness probability” for evaluating the accuracy of this method is proposed.

This study presents an optimization method of sensor layout to improve identification accuracy of indoor contaminant sources. The method integrates an index, the performance of sensor layout (PSL), with a two-step screening procedure to determine sensor layouts that have potential to achieve relatively high levels of accuracy in source identification. Using the PSL, the performance of each possible sensor layout can be predicted and evaluated, and therefore the optimization method can be performed without running a source identification model.