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This paper provides comprehensive research on the environmental quality of a semi-enclosed large-scale stadium during eight football matches. The field measurements during eight matches in a semi-enclosed large-scale stadium were firstly conducted and the corresponding questionnaire surveys on the subjects' comfort were collected. Then the questionnaires for the fuzzy analytic hierarchy process (FAHP) method were collected to obtain the weights of four comfort factors for large-scale stadiums. The measured environmental parameters were compared with limit values in different standards, including EN 16798–2, EN 12464–1, GB 3096 and WHO Air quality guidelines. The influence of environmental parameters on human perceptions was analyzed based on the data from field studies. Furthermore, the weighting scheme for semi-enclosed large-scale stadiums was discussed by comparing with other studies, which revealed that the users of the seme-enclosed large-scale stadiums had lower requirements for the acoustic environment than those of other types of buildings. The relationships between overall comfort votes and comfort votes for different factors were also explored, and the result showed that significant correlations existed between overall comfort and comfort factors, and the spectators were most sensitive to the thermal environment and least sensitive to the acoustic environment. The comprehensive research in this study can help designers and users to improve the building performance of semi-enclosed large-scale stadiums. • Thermal comfort and air quality are the two most important comfort factors during football matches. • TCV first increased with the increase in PET and then declined when PET was larger than 21.0 °C. • The preference vote of air velocity during matches was influenced by both air velocity and air temperature. • Spectators had higher light comfort votes for higher illumination levels than lower illumination levels. • The lively atmosphere during matches made spectators more tolerant of noise. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To investigate group differences in human perceptions, long-term and point-in-time measurements on indoor environmental parameters were conducted in 22 open-plan offices in Harbin, China and 1352 questionnaires were collected. The differences in human perceptions among gender, age, level of education, BMI and the location of subjects groups were analyzed. The comfort temperatures for the male subjects were 1.2 °C and 0.8 °C lower than those for the female subjects in summer and winter, which revealed the higher acceptance of female subjects to the higher indoor temperatures. The mean comfort vote for undergraduates was 0.7 higher than those for master and doctoral students in winter. The difference between Griffiths comfort temperatures and operative temperatures in the overweight group was 1.9 °C in summer and 2.5 °C in winter, higher than the normal weight group (1.8 °C and 2.1 °C) and the underweight group (1.3 °C and 1.7 °C), which revealed the lower tolerance of the overweight subjects to higher temperatures than other groups. The subjects who sat near windows had lower thermal comfort votes than the subjects at other locations in all seasons due to solar radiation, radiator heating and the draft caused by window opening. For indoor air quality, sound and light environment, the male subjects had higher comfort votes than those for female subjects, and undergraduates had higher comfort votes than master and doctoral students. Finally, the interaction of five groups on human comfort was also explored. This study can be used to take into account the difference between groups and decide the comfort systems. • Group differences in environmental quality in open-plan offices in a severe cold region were systematically analyzed. • The comfort temperatures for males were 1.2 °C and 0.8 °C lower than those for females in summer and winter, respectively. • The mean comfort vote for undergraduates was 0.7 higher than master and doctoral students in winter. • The sensitivity analysis of thermal sensation and the comfort temperatures among different groups was discussed. • Interaction of five groups (gender, age, etc.) on human comfort was explored. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We explore the process of modeling aeolian snow transport around buildings by proposing a set of similarity requirements on simulating a single snow fall event with drifting. The similarity criteria are used to guide our wind tunnel tests from the particle selection to the simulation set-up, including the determination of test wind speed, snowfall intensity and transported snow profile. In parallel, a specific field experiment on snow precipitation and drift around a 1-m prototype cube was achieved in Harbin to serve as the reference for the subsequent test validation. After reproducing a target wind and snow environment with a scale of 1:4 versus that of the prototype measurement, two verification tests were put forward using snow and substitution particles, which can mimic the effects of changing wind directions on the snow distribution. Herein, the wind tunnel and outside prototype results show good qualitative agreement in our limited range of length scales and particle properties. In future work, the range of scales and range of parameter values should be increased. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The typical resolution for long-term wind speed records that are publicly available in China is daily, this is too coarse for a sound analytical simulation of snowdrift on building roofs. Take Harbin, China as an example, an algorithm was proposed in this study to address this issue, where the commonly-used 2-parameter Weibull distribution was applied to fit the distribution of 10-min mean wind speed. A parameter estimation method, which combines the method of moment and cumulative probability, was proposed to estimate the parameters of Weibull distribution using very limited information on wind speed. The fitted probability model was validated using high-resolution wind speed data by comparing the snowdrift estimated by the modeled wind speed and that estimated by the actual wind speed. Finally, an analytical simulation of snowdrift on a flat roof was carried out to illustrate the application of the proposed model, and the probabilistic characteristic of the derived ground-to-roof conversion factors for snow loads were analyzed. It is indicated that the proposed model is easy to implement and provides a good estimation of the snowdrift on building roofs, and the derived conversion factors could be satisfactorily modeled using a Generalized Extreme Value (GEV) distribution or a normal distribution. • An algorithm was proposed to incorporate very limited wind information into the analytical simulation of roof snow load. • The proposed algorithm is the first of its kind. • An analytical simulation of snowdrifts on a flat roof was carried out using the proposed algorithm. • Probabilistic characteristics of the derived ground-to-roof conversion factors were analyzed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]