An experimental study on the ventilation control related to the envelope of a new airport terminal.

Over the last decades, a great importance has been given to thermal insulation, in technological designing of building envelope. Lately, a basic requirement of indoor air quality, strictly related to ventilation control strategies, has been highlighted. Then, it is necessary to evaluate correctly, during the design phase, the air permeability of enclosures through validated methods, to assess new technologies through laboratory tests on prototypes and finally to verify real performances through on-site testings. ICITE is developing researches and experiments to set up methods and instruments to evaluate in laboratory and on-site the permeability perfomances of windows and external walls. The report will present the significant case of the on-site permeability evaluation of the envelope of a new airport terminal. Performing testings in non-standards conditions forced us to consider and measure environmental conditions influencing the experimentations: air temperatures, humidity, wind velocity and pressures. Particular attention was drawn to the '"ad hoc" construction of an airtight chamber of significant dimensions, 2.4 x 4.8 m; such a chamber has been designed to isolate the panels of the sample area from the external structure, to obtain homogeneus surrounding conditions and to be flexible during assembling operations. The data concerning all the physical measurements, have been acquired and processed by means of an appropriate software and functional checking procedures have been defined for the airtight chamber and measuring instruments. The adopted methodology may be used to define pre-standards concerning on-site test methods.