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Field calibrations of NO2, NO, and PM10 from AQMesh Air Quality Monitors (AQMs) were conducted during a summer and an autumn period in a busy street in a midsize Swedish city. All the three linear calibration procedures studied (postscaled, bisquare, and orthogonal data) significantly reduced the ranges and magnitudes of the performance indicators to yield more reliable results than the raw data. The improvements were sufficient to satisfy the European Union (EU) Data Quality Objective (DQO) for indicative measurements as compared to reference data only for NO2 (above 50 µg m−3) and NO (above 30 µg m−3) during the autumn calibration period. The relatively simple bisquare procedure had the best performance overall. The bisquare procedure improved the root mean square error by the same amount as other studies using complex multivariate calibration methods. Low concentrations of pollutants were measured, far below the EU Environmental Quality Standard thresholds and even satisfying the future goals for the Environmental Quality Objectives. Cleaning the raw data by removing data points in the reference data that were below the reference station limit of detections (and the synchronous data points in the AQM prescaled data) was found to improve the performances of the calibration procedures appreciably. Many NO2 and almost all PM10 data points in this study fell below the AQM limit of detection. These low concentrations will probably be a common problem in many field studies, at least in areas with relatively low air pollution. However, the relative errors were sufficiently low for these data points that they could be interpreted as accurately representing low concentrations and did not need to be removed from the datasets. For the NO2 measurements, a slight periodic error correlated with sunlight and increased ambient temperature was noted. NO measurements correlated strongly with increased traffic.

Temporarily enhanced natural ventilation of indoor environments can be achieved by opening windows and/or doors, i.e. airing. In this study, wind driven airing rate through doors was measured by tr...

The movement of people and other objects indoors may affect airflow patterns and velocities near local exhaust ventilation hoods, and consequently has influence on the hoods’ ability to remove locally emitted contaminants and on ventilation energy requirements. In this study, such disturbance effects have been studied experimentally and numerically, with the movements consisting of a human-sized plate, cylinder and detailed manikin, respectively, making back-and-forth movements near an exhaust hood. In the experimental part of the study, a 3-D sonic anemometer was used to measure air velocity in front of the hood opening. The numerical simulations used dynamic mesh to handle object movements. The numerical results were validated against the experimental ones and yielded supplementary results on the air flow field. The results show that the turbulence produced by the objects movements included marked air velocity peaks – both assisting and impeding the suction flow – in the near field of the exhaust hood. The generated turbulence, and particularly those peaks, proved substantially larger in the case of plate movement than with cylinder and manikin movement. Overall the results indicate that a moving cylinder represents human movement better than a moving plate, and thus that it’s better to use a cylinder in some test standards that now stipulate a plate as moving object. A Percentage of Negative Velocity (PNV) parameter was introduced for assessing the capture efficiency of the local exhaust system. The PNV represents the percentage of time that the air flow is directed away from the exhaust hood in an imagined point of contaminant release. The study includes test cases where the PNV values were significantly above zero, suggesting a strong effect on the capture efficiency of the exhaust hood. Human induced turbulence that cause such reverse air flows and overall impedes hood suction may be counteracted by enhanced exhaust flow rate, but then at higher energy consumption.

Ventilation through open doors is a simple way to temporarily enhance ventilation of indoor spaces, with the purpose to evacuate indoor air pollutants or to adjust the indoor temperature. In church ...

Validated by experimental data, this paper performs computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations to investigate the influence of tree plantings on urban airflow and vehicular CO exposure in two-dimensional (2D) street canyons with various aspect ratios (building height/street width, AR = H/W = 0.5, 1, 3, 5) and ground-level source. The impacts of tree canopy bottom height (Htb = 2 m, 6 m), tree stand density (y-density = 0.33, 0.67, 1) and leaf area density (LAD = 0.5, 1, 2 m2/m3) are considered. Personal intake fraction (P_IF) and its spatial mean value in leeward and windward sides ( lee, wind) and for entire streets (street intake fraction, ) are adopted to assess overall pollutant exposure. For cases without trees, only one main vortex exists in shallow streets with AR = 0.5-3 and as AR = 3 (5.80 ppm) slightly exceeds AR = 0.5-1 (3.98-3.84 ppm). However, two counter-rotating vortexes appear in deep streets (AR = 5), inducing 1-2 orders smaller pedestrian-level velocity (U/Uref~10−4-10−3) and one-order greater (46.80 ppm) than shallow streets. Trees always weaken wind in streets and raise more in shallower streets by 46.0% as AR = 0.5 (3.98 ppm-5.81 ppm), 26.0-45.9% as AR = 1 (3.84 ppm to 4.84-5.60 ppm), 16.2-50.3% as AR = 3 (5.80 ppm to 6.74-8.72 ppm), but only 8.5-23.4% as AR = 5 (46.80 ppm to 50.78-57.73 ppm). Particularly, as AR = 1, trees raise lee (5.87 ppm) by 27.1-57.2%, while wind (1.80 ppm) only by 0%-23.3%. Higher Htb, smaller y-density or LAD produce less increase of . As AR = 3, vegetation increases lee (8.84 ppm) by 21.2%-66.4% but little affects wind (2.76 ppm). Lower Htb produces smaller differing from AR = 1. As AR = 5, vegetation increases wind (63.97 ppm) by 15.1-36.6% but reduces lee (29.63 ppm) by 5.2-8.5%. Although further investigations are still required for design purpose, this paper provides effective methodologies to quantify how vegetation influences street-scale pollutant exposure.

Optimizing urban ventilation is an effective way to improve urban air quality and thermal environment. For this purpose, under the validation of wind-tunnel experiments, flow regimes and micro thermal environment in typical reduced-canyon models with aspect ratios (AR) of 1.1, 2.4, 4 and 5.67 were investigated by CFD simulations using periodic boundary condition. ANSYS Fluent 15.0 with a solar ray tracing model and radiation model was performed to numerically study turbulence characteristics with wind-driven force and solar-heating conditions. Results revealed that, with wind-driven condition, a clockwise vortex existed in normal and deep street canyon (AR = 1.1 and 2.4) while two counter-rotating vortices appeared in extremely deep canyon (AR = 4 and 5.67). Moreover, different turbulence structures and air temperature distribution existed in canyons with different solar-heating conditions. When the leeward wall or ground was heated, the pedestrian-level velocity increased and street ventilation was strengthened compared to wind-driven condition for all AR values. Particularly, the single main vortex was strengthened (AR = 1.1 and 2.4), and the two-vortex structure in extremely deep canyons (AR = 4 and 5.67) changed to single-vortex structure. When the windward wall was heated, the clockwise main vortex at AR = 1.1 and 2.4 was deformed, and a new sub vortex gradually appeared near street bottom. Furthermore, at AR = 4 and 5.67, windward solar heating destroyed the two-vortex structure and slightly improved pollutant dilution capacity. This work implied that extremely deep street design with weak pedestrian-level ventilation should be avoided. It also provides a meaningful reference for urban planning.

Validated by wind tunnel data, this study numerically investigates the integrated impacts of wind and thermal buoyancy on urban turbulence, ventilation and pollutant dispersion in full-scale 2D deep street canyons (aspect ratio AR = H/W = 3 and 5, W = 24 m). Isothermal urban airflows for such deep street canyons can be Reynolds-number-independent when reference Reynolds number (Re) exceeds the critical Re (Rec~106,107 when AR = 3, 5), i.e. AR = 5 experiences two main vortices and one-order smaller NEV* (~10−3, the normalized net escape velocity) than AR = 3 with a single main vortex (NEV*~10−2). With sufficiently large Re (Re > Rec) and the same air-wall temperature difference (Ri = 2.62, 4.36 when AR = 3, 5), four uniform wall heating patterns were considered, including leeward-wall heating (L-H), windward-wall heating (W–H), ground heating (G-H), and all-wall heating (A-H). Various indicators were adopted to evaluate street ventilation and pollutant dilution capacity (e.g. age of air (τ,s), NEV*, pollutant transport rates (PTR)). Full-scale wall heating produces a strong upward near-wall buoyancy force, which significantly influences flow patterns and improves street ventilation for most cases. When AR = 3, L-H strengthens the single-vortex airflow. When AR = 5, L-H converts the isothermal double vortices into a single-clockwise vortex. For both ARs, W–H reverses the main clockwise vortex to an enhanced counterclockwise one, moreover G-H and A-H cause a more complicated multi-vortex pattern than isothermal cases. Overall, when AR = 3, L-H and W–H increase NEV* by 68% and 40% than the isothermal case. When AR = 5, four wall heating patterns all raise NEV* considerably (by 150%–556%). For both ARs, the L-H, W–H and A-H amplify the contribution of mean flows on removing pollutants but reduce that by turbulent diffusion compared with isothermal cases.

Airing can be a solution to introduce extra ventilation in large single zone buildings, especially where there are large aggregations of people such as churches or atriums. In naturally ventilated ...

Ventilation and infiltration caused by wind are difficult to predict because they are non-local phenomena: driving factors depend on the surrounding terrain and neighbouring buildings and on the building orientation with respect to the wind direction. Wind-driven flow through an opening is complex because wind can flow through the opening or around the building, in contrast to buoyancy driven flow. We explored wind and air infiltration phenomena in terms of pressure distributions on and around buildings, stagnation points, flow along facades, drag forces, and air flow through openings. Field trials were conducted at a 19th-century church, and wind tunnel tests were conducted using a 1:200 scale model of the church and other models with openings. The locations of stagnation points on the church model were determined using particle image velocimetry measurements. Multiple stagnation points occurred. The forces exerted on the church model by winds were measured using a load cell. The projected areas affected by winds in various directions were calculated using a CAD model of the church. A fairly large region of influence on the ground, caused by blockage of the wind, was revealed by testing the scale model in the wind tunnel and recording the static pressure on the ground at many points. The findings of this study are summarized as a number of steps that we suggest to be taken to improve the analysis of wind driven flow in buildings and with these suggestions as a basis for further improvement of prediction methods for wind-driven flows.

The integrated assessments of indoor and outdoor ventilation are still rare so far. As a novelty, this paper aims to quantify the influence of street aspect ratios (building height/street width, H/W = 0.5–5) and window sizes (1 m × 1 m, 1.5 m × 1.5 m) on indoor-outdoor ventilation in two-dimensional streets with single-sided naturally-ventilated buildings. Numerical simulations with RNG k-e model are validated against experimental data and the grid independence are tested as well. Air change rates per hour (ACH, h−1) are adopted for assessing indoor-outdoor ventilation by mean flows (ACHmean) and turbulent fluctuations (ACHturb) respectively. Age of air(τ), purging flow rate (PFR) and its corresponding ACHPFR are used to evaluate overall ventilation capacities. Shallower streets experience better indoor-outdoor ventilation. Outdoor ACHPFR drop from 14.69 to 17.55 h−1 to 3.96–3.97 h−1 as H/W rises from 0.5 to 3. In extremely deep canyon (H/W = 5), two-counter-rotating vortices produce much smaller velocity at low-level regions (U/Uref~10−3-10−5), resulting in small ACHPFR for outdoor (~0.76–0.91 h−1) and indoor in 1–13th floors (~0.03–0.61 h−1). When H/W = 0.5–1, leeward 5–6th floors experience smaller ACHPFR(e.g.~1.13–1.40 h−1 as H/W = 1) than the other floors (e.g. ~1.54–9.52 h−1 as H/W = 1). Particularly, as H/W = 2–3, leeward-side indoor ACHPFR in the middle floors (except the first and top two floors) are nearly constants (~1.02–1.69 h−1) and much smaller than windward-side ACHPFR(~1.41–4.35 h−1) which increase toward upper floors. Besides, the smaller window size reduces indoor ACHPFR by 19.38%~88.28%, but hardly influences outdoor ventilation. Moreover, both outdoor and indoor ACHPFR are greater than ACHmean but smaller than ACHmean + ACHturb. Although further investigations are still required, this paper provides an insight and scientific foundation on integrated indoor-outdoor ventilation evaluation with various effective ventilation indexes.

Air infiltration in ancient churches and other historical and monumental buildings is of great importance considering moisture transfer, energy consumption, thermal comfort and air pollutants that induce surface soiling. Two of the most established models for predicting air infiltration rate in buildings are the Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory (LBL) model and the Alberta air Infiltration Model (AIM-2). Being originally developed mainly for dwellings, their applicability to large single zone buildings is evaluated in this study by comparing model predictions with field measurements in three historical stone churches that are naturally ventilated only through infiltration. The somewhat more developed AIM-2 model yielded slightly better predictions than the LBL model. However, an LBL version that allows inclusion of the Neutral Pressure Level (NPL) of the building envelope produced even better predictions and also proved less sensitive to assumptions on air leakage distribution at the building envelopes. All models yielded however significant overpredictions of the air infiltration rate. Since NPL may be difficult to attain in practice, the AIM-2 model was chosen for model modification to improve predictions. Tuning of this model by varying its original coefficients yielded however unrealistic model behaviors and the eventually suggested modification implied introducing a correction factor of 0.8. This reduced the median absolute prediction error from 25% to 11%. Thus, especially when the NPL is not at hand, this modification of the AIM-2 model may suit better for air infiltration assessment of churches and other buildings similar to the tested kind.

Several studies have found that indoor air quality (IAQ) in schools is often poor and may affect the health of the pupils. Building ventilation is a means to reduce pollutant indoors but different ...