Indoor Environment Of Buildings Research Articles

A novel method of combined interval analysis and homotopy continuation in indoor building reconstruction

ABSTRACTIn this article, several mathematical and statistical methods for uncertainty modelling in indoor buildings are investigated. To reduce the time and cost of the indoor building data-acquisition process, the Trimble LaserAce 1000 rangefinder is used. The accuracy of the rangefinder is evaluated and a simple spatial model is reconstructed. The rangefinder has been used for forest applications to measure the height of trees. In this article, the rangefinder is used for indoor building environment data collection and mapping. The rangefinder was calibrated using a least squares adjustment algorithm and a novel method of interval-valued homotopy as a continuous deformation that reconstructs straight lines or algebraic curves between any pair of three-dimensional data. Homotopy gives better results in term of root mean square error than conventional surveying engineering methods where, in some cases, cubic homotopy gives results 11 times better than conventional methods.

Indoor and Outdoor Surface-Growing Fungi Contamination at Higher Institutional Buildings in a Malaysian University

Surface-growing indoor and outdoor fungi were assessed using swabbing method to investigate the indoor contamination. The painted wall surface samples were collected from two institutional buildings (B1 and B2) of a university in southern Peninsular Malaysia; indoors and outdoors. The mould concentrations varied widely between indoor and outdoor surface samples of both buildings. The total indoor surface-growing mould concentration (8776.49 CFU/cm2) is significantly higher (p<0.05) than the total concentration of outdoor surface growing mould (209.91 CFU/cm2). Respectively, the mean concentration of indoor surface-growing mould (18920.13 CFU/cm2 for B1 and 3704.67 CFU/cm2 for B2) is significantly higher than their outdoor counterparts (99.95 CFU/cm2 for b1 and for 319.86 CFU/cm2 b2) at these buildings. Besides, various air quality parameters (relative humidity, temperature and air velocity) were also measured indoors and outdoors during the study and violation of the guideline provided by ICOP-IAQ 2010 were proven in indoor environment in both buildings. The results of this assessment showed that the indoor environments of both institutional buildings were contaminated by the surface-growing mould. It also suggested the faulty designs and/or usages of building material in these institutional buildings contributed toward the contamination. An innovative solution is needed to correct the problems.

Energy Use and Perceived Indoor Environment in a Swedish Multifamily Building before and after Major Renovation

Improved energy efficiency in the building sector is a central goal in the European Union and renovation of buildings can significantly improve both energy efficiency and indoor environment. This paper studies the perception of indoor environment, modelled indoor climate and heat demand in a building before and after major renovation. The building was constructed in 1961 and renovated in 2014. Insulation of the façade and attic and new windows reduced average U-value from 0.54 to 0.29 W/m2·K. A supply and exhaust ventilation system with heat recovery replaced the old exhaust ventilation. Heat demand was reduced by 44% and maximum supplied heating power was reduced by 38.5%. An on-site questionnaire indicates that perceived thermal comfort improved after the renovation, and the predicted percentage dissatisfied is reduced from 23% to 14% during the heating season. Overall experience with indoor environment is improved. A sensitivity analysis indicates that there is a compromise between thermal comfort and energy use in relation to window solar heat gain, internal heat generation and indoor temperature set point. Higher heat gains, although reducing energy use, can cause problems with high indoor temperatures, and higher indoor temperature might increase thermal comfort during heating season but significantly increases energy use.

Biomonitoring the indoor environment of agricultural buildings.

Agricultural hygiene and biomonitoring helps protect people, livestock and crops from pests and disease, including insects, parasites, pathogens and weeds. Optimising the health of animals and crops increases productivity, minimises animal suffering, and ultimately protects human health by ensuring that foodstuffs are safe for consumption. A healthy farm environment also protects the health of the agricultural workers. Ensuring hygiene and health protection is one of the basic construction requirements. Such requirements are examined when commissioning new constructions and examining defects in constructions already in use. One substantial defect is biocorrosion which represents a synergistic process with a complex variety of factors, caused by biochemical manifestations of various micro-organisms micromycetes). Micromycetes producing mycotoxins therefore play an important role regarding the so-called 'Sick Building Syndrome' (SBS) that has become a global problem nowadays. Therefore, agricultural hygiene and biomonitoring aims to minimise the introduction of additional pathogens and pests, as well as the spread of pathogens and pests in farm environments; this helps protect the safety of foodstuffs further down the supply chain. The aim of the presented study is to point out the need to address indoor environment monitoring, summarizing the most commonly used methods for monitoring biological factors, and characterizing the negative effects of biological agents on humans and animals exposed to their negative effects.

Improved Thermally Activated Building System Design Method Considering Integration of Air Systems

The purpose of the thermally activated building system design is to maintain the thermal comfort of the building indoor environment by securing enough thermal output of the system. For preventing the condensation on the thermally activated building system, the air system is mostly integrated with the thermally activated building system. However, the common design method in the standards only considers the thermal performance of the system itself and cannot reflect the effects of the air system. Thus, the design process of the thermally activated building system should include the consideration about the latent load and ventilation. In order to reflect the effect of the air system, the amount of sensible load removed by the thermally activated building system and air system should be included in the design process. The sensible load handled by the air system highly depends on the type of the air system and design consideration to prevent the condensation and maintain the indoor air quality. In this study, the air system choosing process was included by simulating and observing the sensible load removed by different types of the air system, and thermal performance adjustment in the design process was proposed.

Location-aware multi-objective optimization for energy cost management in semi-public buildings using thermal discomfort information

Owing to the large size and dynamic environment in semi-public buildings, reducing energy consumption while providing desirable comfort to users, is challenging. Setting air conditioning systems to a fixed temperature, based on user demands and limited experience, leads to steep increase in costs for building operators. Seasonal changes in local energy tariff further impact costs, eventually affecting the comfort rendered to users. Moreover, indoor environments in buildings vary over regions and a one-size-fits-all approach for cost management may no longer be applicable. In this regard, we propose an adaptive multi-objective optimization model, capable of delivering customized thermal settings in buildings based on geographical location and its influence on user preferences, government regulations and energy pricing. Energy cost is based on the non-linear relation of cost with energy consumed, which is consecutively modelled in terms of the building-specific heat load. A customizable user comfort model developed from the well-known Fanger's model, considers personal parameters of users, further adding to the adaptability of the solution. The model is envisioned to enable building operators in determining the indoor thermal setting while fixing the highest acceptable (dis)comfort level or energy cost as per the set budget.

Experimental study of a local ventilation strategy to protect semi-exposed relics in a site museum

Indoor environmental controls are critical considerations when preserving artifacts in museums. Controlling the indoor environment of site museum buildings with large space layout typically consumes large amounts of energy. Most of the energy load needed to preserve relics is dissipated throughout the non-occupied space, because the environments that contain the relics occupy relatively little space compared to the entire exhibition hall. In this study, an energy efficient local ventilation system was proposed to independently control the environment of a funerary pit, which was preserved within a museum separate from the large exhibition hall. An experimental hall, which consists of a funerary pit and an experimental local ventilation system, was built to simulate a site museum building. Experiments were conducted to investigate the system’s performance and to validate its ability to preserve historical terracotta figurines in their semi-exposed pits within the exhibition hall. The study evaluated the stability of the conservation environment and the system’s energy usage by assessing the effects of the ventilation rate. The experimental results showed that the local ventilation system provides an energy-saving strategy supporting the environmental control of the funerary pit. The LV system significantly decreased temperature fluctuations in the funerary pit and temperature differences across semi-exposed relics. The system could be used to control the local preservation environment of the funerary pit separately from a large space exhibition hall.

Making sense of building data: New analysis methods for understanding indoor climate

This work presents a novel approach for exploratory analysis of indoor environment measurements. Building monitoring is a complex task constrained by technological and environmental limits. Monitoring processes can be long, employ multiple sensors and equipment, and may involve multiple buildings across extended periods. Once the data is collected, it's not always straightforward how to make sense of it. When faced with complex heterogeneous amounts of data, early exploratory analysis is helpful to make sense of the broad patterns, highlight data weaknesses and features, and identify directions for more in-depth analysis. Inaccuracy, incompleteness and inconsistence are common characteristics of monitored field data, which then often needs intensive pre-processing to address data quality issues and improve data analysis results. This paper describes techniques from computer science, such as decision tree induction and others, that are not normally applied to field measurements of indoor environments in buildings, and as an example applies them to a complex set of data from climate-responsive spaces in India. The findings illustrate the power of these techniques for using simplified measures as proxies to extract more sophisticated information about building operation, and for quickly identifying patterns in how different design and operational characteristics affect thermal comfort.

Holistic research methodology for investigating thermal, visual and IAQ performance in cargo container buildings

Taiwan is located in a subtropical zone and the latitude range of the South and the North is only around three degrees and the weather is always in high temperature and humidity. Yet, the geographical environment and climate of Taiwan are always varied. All regions are faced with different environmental issues which need different solutions. The use of containers as a building material has grown in popularity over the past several years in Taiwan due to their inherent strength, wide availability and relatively low cost. The cargo container architecture has also been built with containers because they are seen as more eco-friendly than traditional building materials such as brick and concrete. However, the study into the indoor environment of cargo container buildings is still lacking to provide a more detailed technical support. We need to establish the methodology to reveal the spatial and environmental considerations to be applied in the design process of the cargo container building, and also to consider environmental benefits in terms of comfort and energy saving that can be brought into the cargo container building. We investigated the spatial delight, thermal and luminous environment of a selected cargo container building in Taiwan. Through fieldwork, which included onsite monitoring and interview of building occupants, first-hand information on environmental and comfort conditions inside the building and occupants’ subjective views on the comfort condition were obtained.1 These findings could provide the holistic research methodology for investigating thermal, visual and indoor air quality (IAQ) performance, to determine the feasibility for improving the comfort conditions for building the cargo container architecture. The following case study provides an illustrate feasibility of cargo container architecture in Taiwan.

二酸化炭素濃度によるデマンド換気量制御建物の室内環境に関する調査研究 第1報 2015年夏期の調査結果

二酸化炭素濃度によるデマンド換気量制御建物の室内環境に関する調査研究 第1報 2015年夏期の調査結果

Personalized human comfort in indoor building environments under diverse conditioning modes

In practice, building heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) systems are essentially set at nominal levels according to industry guidelines. However, several studies have demonstrated that this conventional practice is unlikely to meet the thermal requirements of occupants in a single or multi-occupancy space due to occupants' diverse preferences, activities and needs. To improve occupants' thermal comfort, this study develops and tests a smartphone application framework which is capable of dynamically determining the optimum room conditioning mode (mechanical conditioning or natural ventilation) and HVAC settings (thermostat setpoint) in single and multi-occupancy spaces. The “personalized” HVAC control framework integrates environment data (obtained from sensors) with human physiological and behavioral data (obtained from wearable devices, polling apps) in a smartphone application we developed for human-building interaction. In the operation phase, occupants' thermal preferences are continuously predicted using the personalized comfort models, developed from the training data through the Random Forest classifier, when determining the optimum HVAC control strategies. Two case studies are conducted to demonstrate the capabilities of the developed framework to improve thermal comfort in single and multi-occupancy spaces.

Indoor Environment in Residential Prefabricated Buildings

The contribution presents results of the experimental measurement of indoor air quality in residential prefabricated buildings. People spend about 90% of their life in the indoor environment of buildings. Hygrothermal parameters and indoor air quality are the essential component that define the quality of the indoor environment. The results of case study characterize the quality of the indoor environment of the ordinary occupants in housing unit of residential prefabricated building. A current problem of revitalized prefabricated buildings is inadequate air exchange and related thereto to poor indoor air quality. The experimental measurements were carried out just before and at the beginning of the heating season (from 1st October to 30th November 2016). Heating season was launched in the middle of experimental measurement. The wireless indoor sensor Elgato Eve Room was used for measurements. The obtained values of indoor air temperature [°C], relative humidity [%] and indoor air quality [ppm] are describe and analysis in this study. The results of the study indicate that the values of temperature and indoor air quality meet optimal levels during the experiment with nuances. The mean air temperature in the indoor environment is 22.43 °C. The temperature of the indoor environment is held at the optimum level (18-24 °C) for 94.50% time of the experimental measurements. In addition, the indoor air quality in the context of the content of harmful volatile organic compounds (VOCs) has been excellent for almost 91% time of the total experiment. However, the values of relative humidity were less than the optimum value nearly 40% of the total observed time. The mean 10-minutes values of relative humidity during the heating season is about 10% lower than the mean 10-minutes relative humidity before the heating season.

Assessment of Commercial Active Ceramic Tiles on Benzene Degradation for the Pollution Control of Indoor Atmospheric Buildings

Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) constitutes an important class of air pollutants, and benzene is one of the main contaminants of indoor air pollution. Among the methods for the treatment of environments with a high VOCs concentration is the photocatalytic oxidation by TiO2 (anatase) ceramic coated surfaces. The effectiveness of VOCs photodegradation studies using active ceramic tiles made in laboratory is well reported in the literature. However, this has not been reported using commercial tiles, although active ceramics are sold for such a function. In this context, this study proposed the assessment of commercial active ceramic tiles capacity in the photocatalytic degradation of benzene in indoor air. The development of this work arose from two questions: a) if the commercial active ceramic tiles are efficient in the VOCs degradation as the manufacturers claim; b) if they are able to degrade VOCs in indoor building environments. Experiments were conducted in laboratory’s scale, using an adapted simulation chamber. The volatilized benzene entered in contact with the commercial ceramic tile under fluorescent light and ultraviolet (UV) light of 365 nm. Samples of the chamber internal air were collected by adsorption on polydimethylsiloxane fibres in headspace technique (SPME-HS). The evaluation of the benzene degradation occurred by gas chromatography analysis with mass spectrometry (GC-MS). The characterization of commercial active ceramic samples occurred by techniques of X-Ray Diffraction Powder (XRD), and Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) with Energy Dispersive Spectrometry (EDS). Results showed that, under the experimental conditions, the commercial active ceramic tile was not capable of the benzene photocatalytic oxidation. The ceramic characterization detected very low quantity of TiO2 on ceramic samples, being this fact attributed as the main responsible for the ceramic photocatalytic inactiveness.

Investigation of physiological differences between immersive virtual environment and indoor environment in a building

In the domain of building science and architectural design, the immersive virtual environment is being commonly adopted due to its convenience and cost-effectiveness, especially for research relevant to occupant behaviour in a building indoor environmental control. The goal of this study is to investigate whether such an immersive virtual environment condition could affect an occupant's thermal sensation and physiological response to ambient conditions differently, as compared to a real indoor environment, even though those two thermal conditions are the same or very similar. A series of human subject experiments using 18 participants was conducted in an environmental chamber. While thermal conditions were controlled at 20℃ to 30℃ in each environment, respectively, participants were asked to periodically report their thermal sensations on their body. Their heart rates were also continuously measured. The result of our experiments revealed that overall thermal sensations on the whole and local body areas showed some significant differences between the indoor environment and immersive virtual environment conditions during the same thermal conditions. Also, the heart rate difference between two environmental conditions was statistically significant at every thermal sensation level. These findings support the idea that significant physiological response differences could be affected by the immersive virtual environment condition.

長期観測データに基づく建築環境外界気象要素の特性に関する実証的研究 : その2-グローバル照度から直射照度・全天空照度の推定

長期観測データに基づく建築環境外界気象要素の特性に関する実証的研究 : その2-グローバル照度から直射照度・全天空照度の推定

長期観測データに基づく建築環境外界気象要素の特性に関する実証的研究 : その3-全日射量から直達日射量・天空日射量の推定

長期観測データに基づく建築環境外界気象要素の特性に関する実証的研究 : その3-全日射量から直達日射量・天空日射量の推定

Assessment and biomonitoring indoor environment of buildings

Ensuring hygiene and health protection is one of the basic construction requirements. Such requirements are examined when commissioning new constructions and examining defects in constructions already in use. One substantial defect is biocorrosion which represents a synergistic process with a complex variety of factors. It is caused by biochemical manifestations of various micro-organisms (micromycetes). Micromycetes producing mycotoxins therefore play an important role regarding the so-called ‘Sick Building Syndrome’ that has become a global problem nowadays. The case study presented here aims to demonstrate the effectiveness of the diagnostic methods used in assessing the presence of micromycetes in a building’s internal atmosphere and on the internal surfaces of a construction built using traditional construction methods. The methodology of comparing methods is based on their effectiveness, taking into account the identification of type and intensity of micromycetes presence in the air and on the material surfaces in the monitored areas.

A-6 オフィズビルの空気調和環境の真菌:動熊調査

A-6 オフィズビルの空気調和環境の真菌:動熊調査

Design for perception management system on offshore reef based on integrated management

According to an analysis of actual monitoring demands using integrated management and information technology, a quad monitoring system is proposed to provide intelligent perception of offshore reefs, including indoor building environments, architectural structures, and facilities and perimeter integrity. This will strengthen the ability to analyse and evaluate offshore reef operation and health, promoting efficiency in decision making.

Task Allocation and Route Planning for Robotic Service Networks in Indoor Building Environments

AbstractRobots have become increasingly pervasive in day-to-day life, simplifying several monotonous and mundane tasks in indoor environments. With increasing applications being developed for domes...