Evaluation of indoor air quality in a museum (Bait Al Zubair) and residential homes
This study was conducted with an aim to know the extent to which artefacts displayed in a museum could be affected due to raised levels of indoor air pollutants. The other objective of this work was to identify whether the quality of air in the residential homes is acceptable for the residents or not. In order to fulfil these objectives, the levels of air quality parameters were recorded at various locations of the museum and residential homes. The determined values of these parameters were compared with the permitted values defined in international standards/guidelines. Results showed that the levels of nitrogen dioxide, ...
Source: Indoor and Built Environment - March 18, 2015 Category: Occupational Health Authors: Abdul-Wahab, S. A., Salem, N., Ali, S. Tags: Original Papers Source Type: research
Low-mixing coaxial nozzle for effective personalized ventilation
The aim of this work was to study the performance of a novel coaxial nozzle for personalized ventilation that can be used as an add-on to ceiling diffuser. The coaxial nozzle minimizes air entrainment between the central fresh air stream and the room air. It allows effective delivery of clean air to the breathing zone while the recirculated conditioned air is supplied to the space by the associated ceiling diffuser. Detailed 3-D Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) simulations were performed and numerical results on velocity, temperature, and CO2 concentration fields agreed well with experimentally measured values. The effec...
Source: Indoor and Built Environment - March 18, 2015 Category: Occupational Health Authors: Makhoul, A., Ghali, K., Ghaddar, N. Tags: Original Papers Source Type: research
On-site measurements of ventilation performance and indoor air quality in naturally ventilated high-rise residential buildings in Hong Kong
This article presents on-site measurements of the ventilation performance and IAQ in four high-rise residential rooms in Hong Kong. Key parameters including the air changes per hour, respirable suspended particulate matters (PM: PM10 and PM2.5), and total volatile organic compounds were continuously recorded over a specified period. A comparison of cases with floor-extended and window-like openings is made. The results indicate that single-sided ventilation performs well regardless of the orientation of the apartment room and the configuration of the opening. Previous empirical models based on single-room buildings are not...
Source: Indoor and Built Environment - March 18, 2015 Category: Occupational Health Authors: Ai, Z. T., Mak, C. M., Cui, D. J. Tags: Original Papers Source Type: research
Radon measurements in the cave houses of Crevillente (Spain)
This paper focuses on the cave houses of Crevillente (Spain) as a traditional housing experience which takes advantage of local environmental conditions through simple architectural proposals, paying particular attention to the presence of radon gas inside these underground constructions. Our aim is twofold: first, to analyse the architectural conditions of the different excavated typologies found in the municipality and second, to relate them to the existing radon gas levels after checking internal concentration by means of E-PERM® long-term devices placed inside the cave houses in 2011. The measurements corresponding...
Source: Indoor and Built Environment - March 18, 2015 Category: Occupational Health Authors: Piedecausa, B., Chinchon, S. Tags: Original Papers Source Type: research
Underground soil and thermal conductivity materials based heat reduction for energy-efficient building in tropical environment
In this paper, an alternative way of releasing heat of building is investigated in order to reduce energy demand of building built in tropical environment. Underground soil is considered as a source for extracting heat from building through thermal conductivity pipes. Thermal conductivity pipes are considered to be fixed on the inner faces of the walls and their lower part to be inserted to the ground where temperature is lower than the indoor temperature. The entire analyses were done numerically using ANSYS 11. Heat flow between two systems was studied and the performance of the thermal conductivity pipes was examined. T...
Source: Indoor and Built Environment - March 18, 2015 Category: Occupational Health Authors: Alam, M. R., Zain, M. F. M., Kaish, A. B. M. A., Jamil, M. Tags: Original Papers Source Type: research
Field analysis of indoor air quality in high rise and low rise green offices with radiant slab cooling systems in Malaysia
This study attempts to assess the passive design effectiveness in terms of indoor air quality in green office buildings in the tropics. Two green office buildings that incorporated the radiant slab cooling and conventional cooling system have been selected as case studies. A detailed assessment in terms of thermal comfort parameters (temperature and relative humidity), indoor pollutants’ concentration (carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide and formaldehyde) and air movement was carried out. The results showed that the thermal comfort parameters fall within the Malaysian Standard (MS1525:2007) and ASHRAE Standard-55 2010 ex...
Source: Indoor and Built Environment - March 18, 2015 Category: Occupational Health Authors: Yau, Y. H., Hasbi, S. Tags: Original Papers Source Type: research
Demand-controlled ventilation in new residential buildings: Consequences on indoor air quality and energy savings
This study revealed that decreasing the flow rate to 0.1 l·s–1·m–2 for more than 4 h in an unoccupied newly built building creates unacceptable IAQ in terms of volatile organic compounds concentration. Hence, if the duration of unoccupancy in the building is more than 4 h, it is recommended to increase the ventilation rate from 0.100 l·s–1·m–2 to 0.375 l·s–1·m–2 before the home is occupied. The study showed that when the investigated building was vacant for 10 h during weekdays, increasing the ventilation rate 2 h before occupants arrive home (lo...
Source: Indoor and Built Environment - March 18, 2015 Category: Occupational Health Authors: Hesaraki, A., Holmberg, S. Tags: Original Papers Source Type: research
Immediate infection control measures and preventive monitoring after excessive water damage in an aseptic working area of a blood donation service centre
Two weeks after repair of a shower drain, an unnoticed leak resulted in large-scale water penetration into the blood product fractionation room. Both 120 m2 of floor and 10 m2 of wall were heavily soaked. Such a situation usually required the immediate interruption of manufacturing, and start of maintenance work. However, as this service provides blood products for an university hospital, it was necessary to ensure the maintenance of good manufacturing practices and product safety by implementation of a bundle of preventive measures. For forced drying, the floor covering was completely removed, the drywalls were opened, an...
Source: Indoor and Built Environment - March 18, 2015 Category: Occupational Health Authors: Kramer, A., Assadian, O., Ryll, S., Selleng, K., Below, H. Tags: Original Papers Source Type: research
Desiccation cracking of earthen sites in archaeology museum - A viewpoint of chemical potential difference of water content
(Source: Indoor and Built Environment)
Source: Indoor and Built Environment - March 18, 2015 Category: Occupational Health Authors: Luo, X., Gu, Z., Yu, C. Tags: Editorial Source Type: research
Experimental study of factors affecting Pt-TiO2 thermal catalytic oxidation of formaldehyde
In this study, Pt-TiO2 thermal catalyst was prepared and its composition and pore structure was examined by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and Brunauer–Emmett–Teller (BET) methods. The impact of reaction temperature, air-flow rate and initial concentration of formaldehyde to the catalytic degradation effect was investigated. The largest relative change rate of the specific degradation rate was 0.49%/℃ within the temperature range from 70 to 120℃. Compared with other relevant studies, the reaction temperature was reduced and made the catalyst more suitable for air conditioning systems in respect to energy...
Source: Indoor and Built Environment - January 14, 2015 Category: Occupational Health Authors: Zhang, G., Hong, Y., He, W. Tags: Original Papers Source Type: research
Sustainable noise control system design for building ventilation systems
This article presents an integral approach to sustainable noise control system design for building ventilation systems in Hong Kong. This approach combines the analytic hierarchy process and life cycle analysis (LCA) to obtain a holistic view of the system performance in terms of human, economic, and environmental impacts. The approach was applied to the evaluation of various noise control systems including duct liners, silencers, semi-active noise control, and active noise control for ventilation systems. Although passive systems such as duct liners and silencers seem to consume more material resources than semi-active an...
Source: Indoor and Built Environment - January 14, 2015 Category: Occupational Health Authors: Mak, C. M., To, W. M., Tai, T. Y., Yun, Y. Tags: Original Papers Source Type: research
Perceptive-cognitive aspects investigation in relation to indoor environment satisfaction collected from naturally ventilated multi-storey student accommodations in Malaysia
This study investigates the perceptive-cognitive aspects of indoor environment among students who are staying in multi-storey accommodations in Klang Valley area, Malaysia. The students were asked to participate in the subjective survey in order to gather their indoor environment satisfaction votes. The objectives of this study are (1) to know how does the occupant of naturally ventilated multi-storey student accommodations respond to their indoor comfort whilst staying in an uncontrollable indoor atmosphere and (2) to identify what are the design features that contribute to the achievement of occupant’s overall indo...
Source: Indoor and Built Environment - January 14, 2015 Category: Occupational Health Authors: Dahlan, N. D. Tags: Original Papers Source Type: research
Thermal comfort characteristics in naturally ventilated, residential apartments in a hot-dry climate of India
This paper deals with analysing the thermal comfort performance of apartment units in a typical hot, dry climatic region, through real-time monitoring and dynamic simulation adopting Environmental Systems Performance – research (ESP-r) thermal simulation software. Real-time monitoring of thermal comfort parameters was carried out in representative units for a period of six months between January and June (winter to summer). The measured data were analysed and used to validate the simulated results obtained from the ESP-r model, which was subsequently used to establish the prevailing comfort characteristics and the th...
Source: Indoor and Built Environment - January 14, 2015 Category: Occupational Health Authors: Udaykumar, A., Rajasekar, E., Venkateswaran, R. Tags: Original Papers Source Type: research
Aerodynamic characteristics of human movement behaviours in full-scale environment: Comparison of limbs pendulum and body motion
The aerodynamic effects of human movement can significantly influence the airflow motion and contaminants transmission in enclosed environments such as in aircraft cabins, cinema and conference room, and so it is necessary and important to study the characteristics of these aerodynamic effects. This work focuses on the aerodynamic characteristics of human movement behaviours including limbs pendulum and body motion. A thermal manikin is used in the corresponding environments to simulate these behaviours. The step frequencies of 20, 30, 40, 50 and 60 double steps per minute for limbs pendulum and the moving speeds of 0.5, 0...
Source: Indoor and Built Environment - January 14, 2015 Category: Occupational Health Authors: Han, Z. Y., Weng, W. G., Huang, Q. Y., Fu, M., Yang, J., Luo, N. Tags: Original Papers Source Type: research
Experimental study on one-side confined jets from a parallel-flow outlet in a push-pull ventilation system
This study conducted a series of experiments on the airflow characteristics of one-side confined jets from a parallel-flow outlet with a two-tier perforated plate and a honeycomb in a push–pull ventilation system. Maximum velocity, maximum temperature and airflow trajectory were analysed and compared with previous studies about different outlets. The results showed that the dimensionless turbulence coefficient of the parallel-flow outlet was smaller than either the cased axial fan with open grille’s or the swirl diffuser’s turbulence coefficients from isothermal condition. Different development laws for t...
Source: Indoor and Built Environment - January 14, 2015 Category: Occupational Health Authors: Wang, Y., Huang, Y., Zhou, Y., Shu, Y., Liu, J. Tags: Original Papers Source Type: research
