Numerical simulation of VOCs emission from building materials: A comparison of different material shapes

Abstract

Introduction: Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) are the most significant indoor pollutants that mainly emitted from various building materials and can do a great harm to human beings. The present study aims to the effect of different shapes of building materials on the emission characteristics of VOCs by using Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) simulation.
 Materials and methods: The indoor air flow is described by the continuity equation, the momentum equation and the standard k-ε model. The transport of VOCs in materials is described by a transient diffusion equation. ANSYS Fluent is used to solve the governing equations.
 Results: The emission of VOCs from planar building materials is validated based on the experimental data according to the literature. The numerical results have proved that the emission VOCs from hollow cylindrical building materials is faster than that of VOCs from planar building materials. The thinner the building materials and diffusion coefficient is bigger, the faster decrease rate of VOCs it is.
 Conclusion: The material shape has a significant impact on the emission of VOCs from building materials. When assessing indoor air quality, the realistic shape of materials should be used instead of the simplified planar materials.