Experimental study of airflow and pollutant dispersion in cross-ventilated multi-room buildings: Effects of source location and ventilation path

Abstract

Indoor air quality (IAQ) problem and associated health risks, determined by the indoor air pollutant, are of great concern in modern society. This paper presents a detailed experimental study of pollutant dispersion and airflow characteristics in a multi-room building under cross ventilation condition. A series of experiments were conducted in a scaled multi-room chamber which represents a slap-shaped building. A wind wall system was developed to simulate the cross-ventilated environment. The windows and doors were used as cross ventilation openings, enabling three ventilation path test scenarios. Tracer gas technique was employed to reveal the pollutant dispersion features in the chamber under different conditions. Both the air velocities and tracer gas concentrations at selected key positions in the chamber were measured. The mean concentration values were analyzed to investigate the influence of source location and ventilation path on the pollutant dispersion. This study shows that the pollutant dispersion and airflow characteristics can be strongly influenced by the source location and the ventilation path under approximately the same inflow conditions, and the differences were quantitatively presented. The results give useful insights into the airflow pollutant dispersion process in cross-ventilated multi-room buildings and provide a valuable database for the validation of CFD simulations.