Investigation of the influence of three building materials on the mean air quality in a ventilated room

Indoor Air Quality represents a very ambitious challenge in developed countries. As already shown in previous studies, four phenomena are influencing the air pollution level indoors. These are ventilation indoor emissions, chemical reactions in the bulk air-phase of the rooms, and physico-chemical interactions between pollutants and building materials.
The study presented here focuses on the latter point. It investigates the influence of three different wall materials (concrete, gypsum board and particle board), on the mean exposure of the occupants of a ventilated office. The analysis was carried out by means of numerical simulations using an object-oriented environment called SPARK.
The comparison between the computed mean exposures shows similar trends regarding the influence of building materials. However, the highest exposure was found in the case of concrete walls and the smallest in the case when gypsum board was the covering material.
The conclusion is :
1. That the wall and pollutant interactions should be taken into consideration when designing ventilation systems and
2. That building materials contribute to a more or less important reduction of the pollution peaks.