Measurements and modelling of particulate matter building ingress during a severe dust storm event

Abstract

Dust storms are a common phenomenon that occurs in many dry and arid areas, demonstrates very high levels of particulate matter (PM), can spread significantly further than its origin, affects both outdoor and indoor air quality, and can cause serious health problems although it is a low frequency event. Focus of this study is the prediction of PM (PM2.5 and PM10) infiltration at typical commercial and office building environments during severe dust storms. Therefore, a two-month field campaign was conducted to capture such an event in Doha, Qatar, and a modelling methodology is proposed based on the one-way coupling of a multi-zone and a computational fluid dynamics software. The predicted levels are in fair agreement with the measurements for both the dust storm and typical days, attributed to the accurate estimation of the external wind pressure and representation of the building envelope. The agreement further improves when the efficiency of the ventilation filters is estimated, from the measuremetns, rather than being extracted from specification sheets. Finally, predictions are found to conform with physical reality and to offer useful insights into PM building infiltration during dust storm events when cross examined with measurements.