Inverse identification model for release rates of multiple gaseous pollution sources in an aircraft cabin

Abstract

When gaseous pollutants are airborne in an aircraft cabin, it is important to know the release rate of pollution sources efficiently and accurately for effective mitigation. At present, it is possible to locate single or multiple pollution sources using the sensor information, but there is no fast and accurate method to determine the strength of multiple pollution sources. In this study, using the monitored pollutant concentrations, with the assumption that the location of multiple pollution sources in an aircraft cabin is known, an inverse model for determining the release rates was established. In order to improve the calculation efficiency, the cause-effect matrix between the release rates of pollution sources and the concentrations of monitored points was obtained by introducing the contribution ratio of pollutant sources (CRPS) method. Due to the direct inversion of the cause-effect matrix being ill-posed, the Tikhonov regularization method was used to enhance the stability of the inverse solution. The inverse model was validated by experiment in a three-dimensional cavity with CO2 as a tracer gas. The method was further demonstrated in a three-dimensional aircraft cabin by simulated data. The results show that the inverse modelling can accurately and efficiently quantify release rates of multiple pollution sources.