Ductwork leakage

In the context of energy saving, new buildings are becoming more airtight and purpose-provided, often central mechanical ventilation is required to create and sustain a healthy indoor air quality (IAQ). This policy is summed up by the well-known energy efficiency mantra “Build tight, ventilate right”.

For years, ventilation and air-conditioning systems have played an increasingly important role in ensuring sufficient air exchange in buildings. With time buildings are becoming more and more airtight to avoid energy losses through uncontrolled air leakage and mechanical ventilation systems are installed to ensure a good indoor air quality. What is a good approach in theory can fail in practice due to leaky ductwork.

In a context of energy savings, new buildings are becoming more and more airtight. The good indoor air quality (IAQ) relies therefore more and more on mechanical ventilation systems with specific air flowrates to be met. However, in practice, ventilation ductworks are not always very airtight. The numerous issues induced by leaky ductwork have been well outlined in the literature and summed up in (Leprince et al., 2020). Yet the awareness is not forthcoming, and on-site workers do not always realize the consequences of ductwork leakages. 

Purpose of the work

In an air traffic control tower, conditions for thermal comfort are crucial as the task of air traffic control requires high level of attention and vigilance. Comfortable conditions must be guaranteed all the time especially during extreme periods. Therefore, the HVAC system of a control tower is always composed by two, possibly three, identical air handling units, functioning in full redundancy.