indoor environment

A mathematical model that reproduces fungal proliferation and morphological colony formation was developed on the basis of a reaction diffusion modeling approach. In this modeling, fungus was separated into two states, active and inactive, and it was assumed that active fungus moves by diffusion and reaction while generating and producing inactive fungus. The effects of temperature and humidity on fungal growth were explicitly incorporated in the reaction term of nutrient consumption/generation of active fungus in this governing equation.

The use of CFD technique for predicting the properties of airflow fields and particle movement is effective to carry out parametric study intended for a wide range of particle sizes. In this study, particle dispersions due to turbulent flow and thermophoretic effect were analyzed for a simplified ventilator model. Numerical results that comprise a classification of particle motion, temperature difference and particle diameter were reported.

The National Museum of Western Art is the only work of Le Corbusier in Japan and 50 years have already passed since its construction. In order to maintain the museum’s value as a cultural asset, there is an urgent need to draft a thorough retrofit plan both to maintain the building’s function as an art museum and to restore Le Corbusier’s original design concept.

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.

It is not unusual to face moisture problems in buildings in cold climates and wet regions. It is, however, unusual to have the same problem in a relatively dry region such as Jordon, which has moderate weather conditions and mild winters. Nevertheless, a significant proportion of houses and residential apartments in Jordan are affected. The monitoring of inside air conditions, wall surface temperatures, ventilation and living style has shown that a high relative humidity (RH >75%) occurs at walls resulting in possible condensation.

The incidence of asthma and allergy has increased throughout the developed world over the past 30-50years, roughly the same time period that exposure to phthalates has increased. An ongoing study inSweden, Damp Buildings and Health, showed associations between asthma anddi(2-ethyl-hexyl)-phthalate concentration in dust and between eczema and rhinitis andbutylbenzyl-phthalate.

Supermarket is common in China because of its convenience and abundant merchandise. People insupermarket can be classified into two categories: clients and operators. This research measures thetemperature and relative humidity of four supermarkets to describe the indoor thermal environment,investigates the satisfactory degree of clients and operators on the indoor environment, and analysesthe reasons of dissatisfaction.

This paper gave an overview of the past and present applications of various Computational FluidDynamics (CFD) methods for indoor environment modeling. Typical applications used the CFD tocalculate airflow, air temperature, contaminant concentrations, and turbulence in enclosed environmentfor studying or designing thermal comfort and indoor air quality. With simple airflow and geometry, theCFD is capable of calculating accurately mean flow parameters but less accurately turbulenceparameters.

Analytic models and static approaches as the case of Fanger, Deval, Sherman, Gagge, and Stolwijkmodels cannot completely predict indoor thermal comfort. Building designers could take advantage of adaptive approach of thermal comfort which can account for the complex interaction betweenoccupants and their environment that could affect their comfort.We had carried a field study in two office buildings on March 2005. It has included physicalmeasurements and questionnaires on thermal perception and appreciation.

Steel truss structures, covered with a PVC thin sheet of matt light colour, were used in recent time for the construction of three new classrooms in the University of Catania (southern Italy). Although the construction was fast and cheap, the classrooms proved to be uncomfortable in relation to thermal and luminous environment. A first analysis revealed that the drawbacks were caused by the ultra-lightweight of the structure as a whole, resulting in thermal discomfort.