Proceedings of the 8th International Symposium on Heating, Ventilation and Air Conditioning

In order to inform the design of a building or a group of buildings in relation to their potential energy efficiency, the main impact will be at the initial concept design stage. Variations and interactions of parameters need to be considered quickly as the design develops. This paper describes the development of a ‘sensitivity tool’ based around the established building energy model, HTB2. An example case study from China is given to illustrate the process.

Retail gasoline outlets contribute to the emission of volatile organic compounds (VOCs). According to the United States Environmental Protection Agency (US EPA), the concentrations of the common constituents of gasoline such as benzene (a carcinogen), toluene, ethylbenzene, and xylene within 200 m of gas stations are found to be higher than ambient background levels. Many retail gasoline outlets are located in close proximity to populated commercial and residential neighbourhoods. In the light of the above, this paper presents estimates from the survey of industrial processes (SIP), a pilot survey conducted by the Canadian Government, for the overall evaporative emissions from retail gasoline outlets across Canada. The survey suggests that approximately 58 million litres of liquid gasoline is being evaporated each year into the ambient air from the 11,200 retail gasoline outlets across Canada. Such an emission rate is equivalent to the evaporation of the contents of three fully loaded gasoline delivery trucks on each and every day of the year. This silent emission contaminates the ambient air of urban populated neighbourhoods and subsequently the indoor air of buildings that are located in such neighbourhoods. To that end, this paper attempts to raise the awareness of building engineers regarding the locations of gasoline outlets within the vicinity of buildings and the potential short-circuiting of gasoline vapours from the ambient air to the indoor microenvironment.

The current trend in reduction in energy use in buildings is oriented towards sustainable measures and techniques aimed to energy need restraint. Even so, studies have underlined large differences in energy consumption in similar buildings, suggesting strong influence of occupant behaviour. Variability due to occupants’ interactions within buildings is therefore organic. Nevertheless, it is worth noting a lack of knowledge and study of the parameters influencing users’ behaviour and their way of life. Existing dynamic energy simulation tools exceed the static size of the simplified methods through a better and more accurate prediction of energy use; however, they are still unable to replicate the actual dynamics that govern energy uses within buildings. Furthermore, occupant behaviour is currently described by static profiles, based on assumptions and average values of typical behaviour, which do not necessarily reflect reality accurately. The pursuit of a comfort condition in indoor environment is a result of complex correlation between different parameters and users’ personal sensitivity. As a consequence, a need for always more accurate statistical occupant behaviour models, considering different behavioural patterns and preferences among indoor environmental quality, is arising. Final goal of this research is to simulate, in a more accurate way, the variation in actual energy consumption due to human interaction within buildings. In this effort, the study has highlighted which combination of users’ behavioural pattern consists the most energy-saver or energy-waster behaviour in residential buildings.

Vacuum insulation panel (VIP) is an attractive thermal insulation component to satisfy the needs for high insulation performance. Radiation is a significant heat transfer mode in the VIP. In this study, radiative heat transfer is investigated for each of isotropic and backward-scattering media to evaluate the effect of each scattering pattern on the insulation performance of the VIP. The filler material for practical VIP can be considered as a one-dimensional pure scattering medium between two walls. Both walls are diffuse and have the same emissivity. The resulting insulation performance by each scattering pattern is expressed through the radiative thermal conductivity. A statistical formulation proposed in this paper and a diffusion approximation are used to calculate the radiative thermal conductivity theoretically. Monte Carlo method and discrete ordinate interpolation method (DOIM) are also taken to calculate the radiative transfer numerically. The results of DOIM, Monte Carlo method, and diffusion approximation agree well with those of statistical formulation within 1 % error. The results show that the insulation performance of the VIP can be enhanced by increasing the optical thickness or decreasing the wall emissivity. To decrease the wall emissivity, it is recommended to insert radiation shields or to use an envelope of low emissivity. It is also found that the backward scattering is more effective than the isotropic scattering especially. Therefore, by adding specular metal scales in the filler material, significant improvement in the insulation performance is expected.

High-performance thermal insulation material is needed to save the building energy for heating and cooling the indoor space. Vacuum insulation panel (VIP) can achieve a thermal conductivity of about one-tenth of the typical value of conventional insulation materials. Heat transfer in the interstitial materials of VIP occurs by conduction through the solid structure and radiation through the pore. Separate study of those heat transfer modes in porous materials has been carried out widely, but a coupled heat transfer should be taken into the analysis to predict the performance of VIP correctly. This process is analyzed with the discrete ordinates interpolation method (DOIM) incorporated with the commercial code FLUENT

®

. The interstitial material of VIP is modeled as a 1-D layer with constant properties, and both walls are assumed to be isothermal and diffuse. It is found that the effect of wall emissivity is reduced for a non-scattering medium through the combined analysis. The effective thermal conductivity is significantly larger than that predicted by the simple additive approximation for low emissivity boundaries in an intermediate optical thickness range. When contact resistance between the wall and the filler material is added to the analysis, the effect of conduction–radiation interaction near the wall is compensated with the contact resistance. Therefore, the wall emissivity is more influential than expected in reducing the effective thermal conductivity. The effect of various scattering modes has also been investigated. It is found that backward scattering is more effective in reducing total heat transfer, while isotropic scattering is almost identical with non-scattering case of the same optical thickness. Thus, combined analysis with the modeling of contact resistance should be made in the optimization of insulation performance of VIP with artificial core structure and radiation shields.

A simultaneously solving model is presented for a small room with single thermal environment, and the model is used to predict inner surface temperature and air temperature. Combined heat transfer consists of thermal conduction, convection, and radiation, which exist on building inner surface temperature and air temperature that are coupled through each other. The construction thought of simultaneously solving model: Based on the principle of energy conservation, heat conservation equations are established for inner surface by considering thermal conduction, convection, and radiation, and air heat conservation equations are also established by using indoor air as control volume. Inner surface temperature and air temperature can be received by simultaneously solving and iterative calculation. Direct radiation absorption model and Gebhart absorption coefficient model are considered, respectively, in heat conservation equations of simultaneously solving model. Taking environmental laboratory (5 × 3.5 × 2.5 m) as physical model, condition calculation and experimental verification have taken. Under variety of conditions such as different wall heat flow and different air supply volume, inner surface temperature and air temperature are calculated by simultaneously solving model. The simultaneously solving model based on Gebhart absorption coefficient model is more exact than the model based on direct radiation absorption model. The calculation results of two kinds of simultaneously solving model are compared with test date and provide some important information for applying radiation model of simultaneously solving model.

The present study investigated different combinations of floor/ceiling heating with mixing/displacement ventilation and their impacts on the indoor air distribution and ventilation effectiveness. Measurements were performed in a room during heating season in December. The results show that indoor vertical air temperature differences and air velocities for different hybrid systems are less than 3 °C and 0.2 m/s when supply air temperature is 19 °C, air change rate is 4.2 h

−1

, and heated surface temperature of floor/ceiling heating system is 25 °C. Ventilation effectiveness of mixing ventilation system combined with floor/ceiling heating systems is approximately equal to 1.0, and ventilation effectiveness of displacement ventilation system combined with floor/ceiling heating systems ranges from 1.0 to 1.2. The floor/ceiling heating systems combined with mixing ventilation system have more uniform indoor air distribution but smaller ventilation effectiveness compared with the floor/ceiling heating systems combined with displacement ventilation system. With regard to the building heat loss increased by non-uniform indoor air distribution and small ventilation effectiveness, there should be an optimal combination of floor/ceiling heating with mixing/displacement ventilation to have the minimal building heat loss.

Chinese Kang is one of the most important heating facilities at rural houses in China. The biomass materials such as wood and straw are the primary fuels, which release many pollutants. Inadequate ventilation prevents the pollutants from discharging out. In this study, we investigated the indoor air quality at rural houses in severe cold region of China. The pollutants including PM

2.5

, PM

10

, TVOC, CO

2

, CO, SO

2

, NO

X

, and NH

3

were monitored and the subjective questionnaires on indoor air quality were administered simultaneously. The results shows that PM

2.5

, PM

10

, SO

2

, NOx, and CO

2

were the main pollutants at rural houses, with the overproof rates of 97, 79, 99, 63, 71 %, respectively. Nevertheless, the occupants were satisfied with the indoor air quality even the indoor pollutants’ concentrations exceeded the limits specified in the indoor air quality standard. It had a strong correlation between the concentrations of PM

10

and PM

2.5

, and PM

2.5

also correlated well with the concentration of CO. It is found that the indoor air quality at rural houses improved greatly with the increasing outdoor temperature in March compared to December and January.

The indoor air environmental conditions of three different typical office buildings were studied with the help of actual measurement and questionnaire survey. The field study was carried out in winter time (heating season, January, 2011) and transition season (October, 2011) in the city of Xi’an. The survey results showed that most workers perceived good thermal environment in the investigated office buildings both the heating season and transition season. However, it was found apparently relative low indoor air humidity at heating season. It was also noticed that there was remarkable difference between predicted mean vote (PMV) index and actual-measurement thermal sensation vote (TSV) in evaluating indoor thermal environments in typical office buildings. Based on the survey, at heating season, the thermal neutral temperature (20.6 °C) of workers is 0.7 °C higher than that at transition season (19.9 °C). From the view of indoor thermal comfort, it is reasonable for Chinese national standard to set the indoor temperature at 20 °C at heating season. The field measurement and survey results showed that the quality of indoor air exerts the greatest impact on the acceptance of environmental quality.

A field survey in Guanzhong plain in China has been done on vernacular dwellings to obtain thermal adaptability model which is expressed as

T

n

= 0.691

T

out,

m

+12.91(

R

2

= 0.915) . An analysis has been done on local climate data by using climate analysis method combined with psychrometric chart and establishes comfort zones of two seasons of winter and summer in Turpan. In this paper, we defined four controlling potential areas (passive solar heating, the mass effect and night ventilation, natural ventilation, and evaporative cooling) and obtained the number of days when we can apply passive design strategy. Finally, this paper summarized the suitable design strategies which response to climate environment on vernacular dwellings in Guanzhong plain in China.

Certain phthalates may function as endocrine disruptors and have been associated with various adverse health effects. However, information about the indoor phthalate sources is limited, especially in China. This study measured phthalate concentrations in four kinds of PVC wallpapers and four kinds of PVC floorings from Chinese market, and the target chemicals are six commonly used phthalates, i.e., DMP, DEP, DnBP, BBzP, DEHP, and DOP. The phthalate concentrations in different layers of one kind of PVC flooring were semi-quantitatively measured by infrared absorption spectroscopy (Shimadzu IR). The results showed that DEHP was detected, while other five kinds of phthalates were not detected in PVC wallpapers; DEHP concentration was in the range of 0.134–200 mg/g. DBP and DEHP were detected in PVC floorings, while other four kinds of phthalates were not detected; DBP and DEHP concentrations were in the range of nd-14.4 and 69.1–230 mg/g, respectively. The IR analysis showed that PVC flooring was heterogeneous with highest concentrations on the surface and lower concentration in the substrate layer.

The study carried out a long-period survey of indoor environmental parameters, the clothing of occupants, as well as people’s voting of their sensation in public buildings and residential buildings in Beijing. Beijing belongs to the cold climate zone, which is cold in winter and hot in summer with short autumn and spring. The study was conducted in 2011 and 2012 and could be divided into four periods: (1) autumn (without HVAC), (2) winter (with heating), (3) spring (without HVAC), and (4) summer (with air-conditioning). The investigated places were classrooms, offices, and student dormitories. The investigated occupants were people who had lived in Beijing for long time and had adapted to the climate of Beijing well. The study was trying to explore people’s requirement of indoor thermal environment. Relationships between thermal parameters and people’s sensation were found, and some control strategies of indoor thermal environment were suggested. In consideration of occupants’ thermal adaptation, the acceptable temperature range should be referred to, instead of the most “comfortable” neutral temperature, when deciding the control aim of indoor temperature.

Passengers’ comfort in air craft cabin is related to many factors. Besides the level of thermal environment parameters, its spatial distribution in aircraft cabin and the place where passengers sit should also matters. In this investigation, a total of 14 Boeing 737 aircrafts including 7 airlines were measured. Each airline had two aircrafts, starting from Qingdao and returning right away after landing. Large-scale subjective questionnaire investigation regarding passengers’ comfort was conducted on each flight. As a result, 979 questionnaires were collected. Thermal environment parameters’ measurement contained air temperature and relative humidity, wall temperature, radiant temperature, air velocity, noise, illumination, and absolute pressure. The questionnaires collected basic information of passengers (age, height, weight, and clothes level) and their evaluation of the environment (thermal comfort, perceived air quality, and symptoms). The main purpose of this study is to investigate the spatial distribution of thermal environment parameters and find its relationship with passengers’ comfort. Thus, different parts in aircraft cabin including both horizontal (front, middle, and back) and vertical (head, knee, and feet) were measured. The passengers’ evaluation was also divided according to the place they sat (front, middle and back, window, middle and aisle). The results showed that the uniformity of air pressure and noise in aircraft cabin was quite good. Air velocity was under 0.2 m/s which was imperceptible for passengers. Air temperature was between 24 and 29 °C in all flight, and the deviation in each flight was below 3 °C. The average relative humidity was from 20 to 30 %, and the lowest was between 5 and 20 %. The difference between air temperature and black globe temperature was less than 1.4 °C. Spatial distribution of air temperature, black globe temperature, and relative humidity was relatively small (<3 °C, <10 %) on different cross-sections, while on the same cross-section, difference was smaller (<1 °C, <2 %). For vertical direction, temperature at the head was higher than the feet but within 2 °C. Wall temperature changed greatly during the flight especially the floor, usually 1–7 °C lower when taking off. Floor temperature near the window seat was generally lower than middle and aisle seat. Passenger was satisfied with cabin environment. Overall evaluation of environment showed no difference among passengers at front, middle, and back. However, passengers at window seat and middle seat showed more comfortable than those at aisle seat.

In order to study the indoor thermal comfort in the winter of subtropics region in which there is no heat supply system, field study of indoor thermal comfort was carried out in classrooms of a university in Xiamen. Data both from field measurements and questionnaire survey were collected and analyzed. Consequently, the neutral and preferred temperatures in the winter of Xiamen were obtained, which show slightly difference with previous studies across China. On the other hand, predicted mean vote (PMV), which was calculated by Thermal Comfort Program software, shows some deviations from the mean thermal sensation (MTS) summarized from questionnaires statistics. Finally, by using multivariate nonlinear regression model based on MATLAB, a new adaptive equation was developed, which could be used to predict the thermal response in classrooms in subtropics region. In addition, it was found that the predicted equation fits very well with the collected data, which reflects variation of thermal sensation in winter. Results from this study provide guidance for the measurement and prediction of thermal comfort in winter of the subtropics region.

Fans are widely used in southeast of China to increase heat loss day and night in summer time. However, all-night rotating speed control system, which can produce sleep-friendly airflow, has not been proposed under rigorous human experimental results. Sleeping mode, nowadays, prevailing on the market, are figured out by testing, to be a variant of the simulated natural wind model which is a beta product in the laboratory, thus the so-called sleeping fans are likely to cause rheumatic pain or even temporary paralysis after all-night usage. In this study, customs of using fans during the sleep by Chinese people from different regions and ages are collected through an Internet survey distributed in the summer time. The results of the survey show the necessity of sleep-friendly airflow, customary fan displacement and the preference to the fan type, which partly become the fundamental settings of the human experiment. The human experiment in this study is a preliminary exploration of the airflow preference preceding sleep initiation, which is based on a theoretically possible interaction level in the circadian regulation of sleep that changes in skin temperature rather than core temperature causally affect sleep propensity, for the reason that airflow not only increases heat loss which causes thermal sensation but also stimulates tactile sensation in the skin. In this part, mechanisms and functions of coupling between sleep and body temperature rhythms are given with some physiological and neurobiological findings which can be seen in abundant researches. In the human experiment, subjects were wearing short pyjamas supine on a bed covered by rattan mat with a towel blanket under the following conditions: air temperature(Ta) 30 °C, relative humidity(RH) 60 % and air velocity(V) 0.6, 1.0, 1.5 and 2.0 m/s. Common protocol of subjective evaluation on the effect of airflow is obtained for all subjects. TSV declines with increasing air velocity and arrives at 0.5 when air velocity is around 0.8 m/s, 0.2 m/s lower than that under upright condition. Nearly all subjects prefer the airflow with a constant air velocity to the simulated natural wind with a changeable air velocity. The draft is mainly from too high air velocity and immobile airflow direction.

This paper mainly discusses the field test of the thermal and humid environment in closed bedrooms in a university teachers’ residential building in Shenyang Province during heating period in winter. The research in this study focuses on three aspects: indoor temperature and humidity changes at nights, the effects of indoor humidity at different humidification locations, and indoor thermal comfort. Results showed that the average indoor temperature at night is 22.2 °C and the relative humidity is 47.56 % also that the three methods of room humidification came up with a conclusion that clarified the role of the effects of humidification, based on contrast and analysis. The third method evaluated thermal comfort of the room using PMV and PPD, which gave the conclusion that the study room was the most comfortable one. Furthermore, this paper analyzes how to improve the indoor thermal comfort.

In this present study, the indoor thermal environment of current rural house located in the southwest region of Shandong Province was tested and analyzed; the measured parameters include air temperature and relative humidity. The results show that the indoor air environment temperatures of all rural houses are below 2.6 °C, which are far away from the comfortable temperature. Meanwhile, their absolute humidity is relatively low. The inner wall surface temperature varies in the range from 0.4–2.0 °C. Accordingly, the cold radiations of west and north surface walls are much severe. The analysis and results in this paper provide useful technical support for sustainable development of agricultural house and the new rural construction.

The evaporative cooling effect of the lightweight planting soil module on the building roof could reduce the heat to the top building rooms and improve indoor thermal comfort. Until now, the researches, domestic and overseas, have concentrated on the thermal insulation properties of the actual buildings. However, the investigations on the evaporative cooling characteristics under different controlled environments have not been found yet. In this paper, experiments will be conducted on the evaporative cooling effect of the roof module with planting soil under different moisture contents and environmental controls by using the guarded hot box testing method. From the experimental results, the relationship between the evaporation capacity and moisture content could be obtained, and the influence of the environmental parameters, e.g., relative humidity and ambient temperature, to the evaporation capacity will be analyzed. Based on the variation patterns of the accumulative evaporation capacity with time, a theoretical model for the evaporative cooling effect of the roof module under uneven water supply conditions will be proposed, which will provide basic data for the practical engineering projects and thermal insulation analysis.

Push–pull ventilation system has an advantage over local ventilation system in being more applicable to large working areas. In the ventilated room, there are always varieties of obstacles, such as operator, work piece, and work table. The presence of the obstacles can disrupt the predicted airflow or change its predicted direction. The uniform flow of push–pull ventilation system has advantages over common push–pull ventilation system. The air originated from push hood moves toward the pull hood keeping the same velocity as well as the same air vector. Then, invisible air layers are formed in the midst of the open air. The air flow velocity is very low as 0.2–1.0 m/s, while the recommend air flow velocity of ACGIH is greater than 5 m/s, and with such a very low velocity, the operators cannot feel it even in the center of air flow. In addition, the uniform flow of a push–pull ventilation system has a character that it is not easy to be disturbed relative to the common push–pull ventilation system. In this study, smoke visualization was used in preliminary studies to observe the effects of a uniform flow velocity and the presence of an obstacle in the ventilation zone. On the basis of the results, the positions of the obstacle were selected to test by experimental measurements. From the experiment, conclusions were obtained as follows. The uniform push–pull ventilation has high capture efficiency even under the low velocity. Its law is different from the general push–pull ventilation, that is, in the region of jet, the velocity reduced slowly. And the uniform push–pull ventilation has a character of flow recovery that means the air flow can detour the obstacle in its path and the flow field can return into the original shape.

Maintaining good indoor air quality (IAQ) aimed at meeting human requirements on health and comfort of a space. This study takes the IAQ of the construction square of Xi’an University of Architecture and Technology before winter heating as an example. Four basic parameters: indoor air temperature, CO

2

concentration, relative humidity and wind speed were tested to evaluate the basic condition of IAQ in the construction square. Through the analysis of the basic parameters of indoor air changes with time and the influence to the human body, this study will point out the existing problems in this space and give some improving suggestions.

Nowadays, the trade-off among comfort, health, and energy consumption in deciding indoor design parameters of air-conditioning becomes more and more concerned. In the large space buildings with stratified air-conditioning, human comfort is different from common buildings, and each wall temperature is usually different. Thus, the settings of indoor design parameter for air-conditioning in these buildings are different from common building. In this paper, we provided a series of figures where design temperature and humidity were determined on the difference of black globe temperature and air temperature under certain PMV conditions. Because the fresh air volume is one of the healthy indicators for indoor air environment, we provided a nomogram which can be used to determine the fresh air volume with considering the indoor and outdoor environment, situation of room staff activities, occupant density, and building characteristics. Furthermore, the larger the fresh air volume, the better the indoor air quality, but the larger the energy consumption. We also showed a nomogram that can be used to determine the energy consumption of fresh air and the PMV value under certain design temperature and humidity.

An assessment of a current situation of the actual pollution process of cooking oil fumes during Chinese cooking was carried out in this study. Parameters were measured during cooking mode, and idle mode included the continuous measurements of air temperature, air relative humidity, and generations of CO, CO

2

, and TVOC during cooking process of the breathing zone. From the data available, we could find that without using an exhaust hood, the concentrations of the breathing were far more than the acceptable level. In addition, the generation of CO and CO

2

had little to do with the cooking time and occurred largely as a result of the burning of the gas. The high emission of TVOC concentration was related to the use of the seasonings and ingredients. There was a significantly higher value of temperature during cooking the eight case-study dishes, because the wasted heat cannot be removed effectively. The influence factor of relative humidity is complicated. After we turned on the exhaust hood, the concentrations of CO, CO

2

, and TVOC exhibited an exponential decay with respect to the measuring time.

The present study investigated how different ventilation system types influence classroom temperature and air quality. Five classrooms were selected in the same school. They were ventilated by manually operable windows, manually operable windows with exhaust fan, automatically operable windows with and without exhaust fan and by mechanical ventilation system. Temperature, relative humidity, carbon dioxide (CO

2

) concentration and opening of windows were continuously monitored for one month during heating season in 2012. Classroom with manually operable windows had the highest carbon dioxide concentration levels so that the estimated ventilation rate was the lowest compared with the classrooms ventilated with other systems. Temperatures were slightly lower in classroom ventilated by manually operable windows with exhaust fan. Windows were opened seldom even in the classroom ventilated by manually operable windows. Classrooms with automatically operable windows and exhaust fan and with mechanical ventilation systems achieved the best thermal environment and air quality during heating season among all classrooms examined.

This paper gives a brief introduction on secondary pollution caused by central air-conditioning system of public buildings in cold region. Then, the feasibility analysis of humidity control of central air-conditioning system is conducted, which finds out that central air-conditioning system implementing humidity control can handle secondary pollution to some extent; but due to factors like the inadequate fresh air rate and restricted chilled water temperature, it cannot realize efficient control. The author proposes using activated carbon–nano-TiO

2

photocatalytic composite purification technology to control secondary pollution caused by the system, and related tests are conducted. The results show that the compound purification unit can effectively purify VOCs and microbial pollution in sealed environment under certain conditions, and conditions including environmental temperature, ultraviolet intensity, air velocity, and initial pollutant concentration will influence the purifying performance.

As heat pollutant and dust pollutant sources both exist, large workshop of welding and grinding are specially fittable to adopt displacement ventilation system. Displacement ventilation system has been developed based on summer condition. In order to research the effect of air distribution in winter, numerical simulation and experiment method are taken to study flow field in a large displacement ventilation workshop. Effects of air distribution in winter condition is changed by adjusting air angle of cylindrical ventilators and brought in ventilation efficiency

η

to estimate air distribution of angles 0°, 15°, 30°, 30°, 45°, 60°, 75° to horizontal direction separately. Based on these studies, the following conclusions can be obtained: (1) the thermal buoyancy lift effect of hot stream can be reduced by adjusting the angle of air supply downward, and air distribution of displacement ventilation can be improved in winter. (2) With the angle of 45°, the ventilation efficiency

η

is better than the others.

Based on the statistics of Shanghai metro corporation, currently, above 7 million commuters travel on the Shanghai metro system each day. However, information related to the characteristics of indoor air particulate matter (PM) level in underground stations of this system is limited. The concentrations of PM

2.5

, PM

10

, and CO

2

were measured in this study with portable monitors at two typical underground subway platforms of Shanghai Metro Line 9 during 19 January to 22 January. Experimental results showed that: (1) The anthropogenic activity had a significant impact on the contaminant concentration. Pronounced diurnal variations were observed in the underground subway platforms, and the concentrations of PM

2.5

, PM

10

, and CO

2

displayed a bimodal pattern, with peaks between 7:00 and 10:00 and between 16:00 and 19:00 during the rush hour of workdays. Meanwhile, the PM

2.5

/PM

10

ratio indicated that the human activities contribute the most course particles. (2) The pollutant density had a slightly reduction just a few seconds before the subway train came. It could be explained by the dilution of piston effect on the subway station through tunnel and passageway. (3) The contaminant samples of different station layer were also collected during off-peak hours with the same stable passengers. Correlation between pollutant concentration and station depth has been confirmed.

This study aimed at investigating the thermal comfort and thermal sensation of subjects in an asymmetric radiant thermal environment; 16 healthy subjects were participated in the experiments. According to the results in non-uniform environments with the cold radiation of outer window and floor heating, the local thermal sensations of body parts were different and were the local thermal comfort and skin temperature. The difference would be reduced as the air temperature increasing. In different conditions, forehead and back skin temperature differed not greatly; the difference of hand skin temperature was large due to hand exposed. Women were more sensitive than men to ambient temperature. In the experiment, women’s thermal sensations were colder under the same environment.

When the nozzle is used to form the stratified air-conditioning system in the large-space and large-span building, the nozzle air supply does not meet the requirements of the air-conditioning zone in the stratified air-conditioning system because the nozzle’s jet range is limited. To solve this problem, we have taken an actual large-space building as an example and adopted the secondary airflow-relay equipment to relay the nozzle’s air supply. In this paper, basing on the results of the field experiments, we described the design method of the secondary airflow-relay equipment, studied the characters of the nozzle’s jet, and provided the size and fixed form of the secondary airflow-relay equipment in the large-space and large-span building.

In large-space building, the distribution of vertical temperature has obvious difference. According to this feature, the energy consumption in air-conditioning would be greatly reduced if the designs of airflow are preferable in these buildings. The low sidewall air supply system is widely installed in the large-space buildings since it can directly sent the handled air to the personnel activity area, thereby has lower energy consumption than other systems. In this paper, a Gebhart-Block synchronous solving model is built to solve the vertical temperature distribution of an actual large-space building with low sidewall air supply system. The simulative physical model is divided into eight blocks in the vertical direction. According to the mechanism of heat transfer, unsteady-state heat balance equation is established for indoor air and wall in each block. The unsteady and synchronous solving model is established with integrating these balance equations. Furthermore, to predict the temperature distribution of indoor air and inner wall surface, the theoretical values of this model are calculated with programming by Visual Basic.

Present relief camp built with lightweight envelope has obvious cold-house effect and poor indoor thermal environment. Advantage of phase change material provides one possible way to improve thermal performance of lightweight envelope. This study analyzed the thermal performance of lightweight envelope with and without PCM and presented their difference by establishing one experimental system, including one special model with PCM and one ordinary model without PCM. The results show that the lightweight envelope integrated with PCM has better thermal performance and thermal inertia than those of lightweight envelope without PCM. Meanwhile, PCM applied in lightweight envelope can make indoor air temperature fluctuation be weak. This study provides some guides for structure design and optimization of relief camp, in order to acquiring favorable indoor thermal environment.

PM1 (fine particles with a diameter smaller than 1 μm) number concentrations are more straightforward compared with particle mass concentrations for air quality assessment in underground parking lots. PM1 number concentrations, hourly vehicle passages, real-time temperature, relative humidity, and real-time velocity in the entrance and exit cross sections were measured over the course of one week in May at a residential underground parking lot in Harbin. The daily peak and total number of vehicle passages are much less than those in a commercial underground parking lot. PM1 concentrations were found to be higher in the morning and evening and lower at both weekends and nonpeak traffic times, such as outside of rush hour. During weekdays, the peak-to-trough deviation and daily average value of PM1 concentrations were, respectively, 1.4 and 1.5 times higher than the concentrations during weekends. The vehicle passages per hour and the velocity and temperature per hour in the entrance and exit cross sections had the greatest impact on the PM1 concentration. These findings indicate that PM1 pollution in residential underground parking lots can reach serious levels.

The factors dramatically influencing thermal comfort usually involve air temperature, radiant temperature, air humidity, air velocity, clothes insulation, and metabolic rate. However, under some special conditions, e.g., altitude environment, the air pressure should be taken into account. Exposure to altitude tends to produce deterioration in human heat diffusion performance, rate of convective heat transfer decreases, and rate of convective heat transfer increases with altitude, energy balance between human body and environment is different from in the normal conditions. In the experiments, thermal perception of 20 test persons (240 person-times) was observed by subjective questionnaire in a simulated hypobaric chamber where the air parameters were controllable. The temperature was set at 22 °C, and the barometric conditions were set at 1, 0.95, 0.9, 0.8 atm of simulated hypobaric conditions, corresponding altitude of 0, 400, 800, 2,000 m, respectively. Experiments solved the metabolic rate raised with pressure drop, and the measured PMV differed from actual thermal sensation votes in hypobaric conditions. Moreover, the falling barometric pressure leads to decline in alveolar oxygen, a variety of adaptive physiological processes for oxygen delivery, human metabolism, and thermoregulatory responses as well as thermal perception change. However, the present thermal sensation models were built in the normal environment and there were many divergences in conclusions. Combined with the experiments, this article builds the thermal sensation estimating model under the hypobaric conditions by principal component analysis. The purpose of this study was to make clear whether hypobaric exposure will affect people’s thermal sensation and maybe helpful to establish the indoor thermal comfort criterion in the hypobaric environment.

Since the middle of the twentieth century, with the development of production and urbanization, many problems such as environmental pollution, energy shortages, and ecological degradation, and atmospheric warming, have become increasingly serious. Paying attention to the living environment has become a trend of the international community, which is also the focus of attention paid by governments and the whole society. A good living environment should reflect the characteristics of the three aspects: ecology, economy, and culture. These features are closely related to the building physical environment [

1

]. Based on the grassland typical living form—Mongolia yurt, this paper analyzes the physical environment of such living type, according to the natural environment of grassland and climate characteristics, drawing a conclusion that the energy consumption of traditional grassland dwellings is rather large, and the indoor environment, especially the indoor thermal environment, is far from the pleasant living environment.

District heating is developing very fast in China. At the same time, energy consumption for heating is increasing rapidly. To reduce the level of energy consumption, energy conservation measures should be put in place. In Finland, district heating is well established. Both district heating companies and consumers are encouraged to save energy consumption by effective control methods and management measures. From the view of two typical substations in China and Finland, the differences between Chinese and Finnish district heating systems are revealed. The difference in the design and the control method shows the technological shortages. The difference in the pricing system shows the imperfect management system. The Finnish substation gives an example of the modernization substation. The automatic control of the heat substation is the development tendency. Also the Finnish pricing system and management is worth learning to push forward the heat reform in China.

The purpose of this study was to investigate whether the PMV index can evaluate the thermal comfort in ceiling radiant panel systems. In a previous experimental investigation using an office equipped with radiant cooling panel, it was found that the indoor relative humidity and indoor air velocity kept at 61.5 % and 0.01 m/s, respectively, could help to reduce condensation on the chilled surface and increase thermal comfort. The value of PMV and predicted percentage of dissatisfied (PPD) were calculated with the data measured and recorded in the test room, and they would be validated with the result of 85 thermal comfort questionnaires. By comparing the conclusion, it was concluded that there were some residuals when using the PMV calculation formula to calculate the value of PMV in ceiling radiant cooling panel system compared with the realistic, and a correction coefficient was needed in the PMV’ equation.

Passengers’ comfort is becoming more and more important in aircraft cabins. In this study, thermal environment parameters on 10 airlines (1 international and 9 domestic) including 23 aircrafts and 6 different aircraft types were measured with 155 subjective questionnaires regarding passengers’ comfort collected. Thermal environment parameters contained air temperature and relative humidity, wall temperature, radiant temperature, air velocity, noise, illumination, and absolute pressure. The questionnaires collected basic information of passengers (age, height, weight, and clothes level) and their evaluation of the environment (thermal comfort, perceived air quality, and symptoms). The results showed that air temperature was between 23 and 27 °C and average level of humidity was 26.3 %. Wall temperature was slightly lower than air temperature, but radiant temperature was very close. Air velocity was generally below 0.2 m/s, which was imperceptible for passengers. Average noise level was 82.5 dB (A weighted sound pressure level). The illumination changed greatly, and air pressure dropped when taking off and rose when landing and at cruise period; low pressure between 77 and 90 kPa was maintained. Subjective questionnaire assessment showed passengers were satisfied with the environment, and they believed noise and air pressure contributed most to their comfort level. More than 15 % of the passengers reported drowsiness and symptoms related to humidity (dry eye, nose, and throat). Deep analysis indicated that the longer the fight, the less comfortable passengers felt. Seasonal factor showed no significant influence on comfort level.

Passengers in aircraft cabins experience a low-air-pressure environment in most time of the flying period. So the influence of low air pressure on passengers’ comfort needs further research. The most commonly used model to predict human comfort is predicted mean vote (PMV) model. But PMV is designed for standard atmospheric environment, not for low-pressure environment. Researchers have confirmed that under low-pressure environment, human body heat loss through convection will decrease while through evaporation will increase. Thus, PMV model is not suitable for prediction under low-pressure environment and needed to be revised. The main purpose of this study was to investigate human body heat loss under low-pressure environment through both theoretical derivation and experimental validation, thus the model to predict human thermal comfort under low-air-pressure environment could be promoted. The heat loss was divided into four parts: convection heat loss, skin evaporation heat loss, radiation heat loss, and respiration heat loss. From theoretical derivation, following conclusion could be obtained. Radiation heat loss is more related to temperature, and the influence of air pressure is not significant. The convection heat loss will decrease and skin evaporation heat loss will increase under low pressure environment. Heat loss through respiration increases under low-pressure environment. The total heat loss will increase under low-pressure environment. Experimental validation was conducted with six experiment conditions: 22 and 27 °C (1.0/0.9/0.8 atm). Thirty subjects were recruited, and thermal sensation was significantly lower under low-pressure environment than standard pressure environment. Linear regression was analyzed between the value of thermal sensation vote and human thermal storage rate. Instead of the value PMV model predicted which was significantly higher than thermal sensation vote, the new model developed was more effective in predicting human thermal comfort under low-pressure environment.

Green roof has the advantages of energy-saving and ecological environmental protection effects with, however, insufficient investigations quantitatively, which will keep it from practical engineering projects. In this paper, based on the guarded hot-box testing method, the energy-saving and thermal insulation properties of two lightweight roofing insulation modules with

Sedum lineare

and light planting soil will be studied and compared in the outdoor climate. The experiments involved two operating conditions, i.e., with the air conditioning on and off, that both maintained the moisture content of the two modules the same. It was found that the air temperature within the guarded hot-box was lower than the outdoor air temperature by 5.4 °C for the roof module with

S. lineare

, and the temperature drop of 5.4 °C was 0.8 °C lower than that of the roof module with lightweight planting soil. The average cumulative power consumption of the module with

S. lineare

was about 0.27 kWh/m

2

, which was 0.05 kWh/m

2

lower than that of the module with lightweight planting soil. The electrical saving rate of the module with

S. lineare

was at 15.6 % compared with that of the module with the lightweight planting soil.

Formaldehyde is commonly observed in indoor air, and it is proved that it has significant effect on human health. Natural ventilation is an effective way for pollutant removal. One of the most directly usage way is to open and close the window, but the indoor pollutant concentration decreases with window open. The decayed pattern under different window opening angles has not been studied well. In this article, the formaldehyde concentration increase pattern when external windows and doors were closed and the decay patterns under different window opening angles were studied. The increasing tendency is fast at the beginning 2 h and then slower for the following 2 h. The concentration decay pattern under different window open angles was different, and the larger the window open angle, the faster is the decay of the indoor concentration. Indoor formaldehyde concentration can be removed in several minutes if we open the window at 90°. The timescale of formaldehyde concentration increase pattern is much longer than the decay pattern which takes hours. It implies that to control indoor formaldehyde concentration, we should open the window more frequently other than keeping it open and close for a long time.

It is well recognized that particles would enhance SVOC flux between surfaces and bulk air and contribute to inhalation exposure to SVOCs. DEHP are ubiquitous in indoor environment and can be accumulated in indoor particles. It has become widely recognized as a major indoor pollutant. Our objectives are to clarify the further mechanism of the influence of particulate size distribution on DEHP phase distribution and to estimate indoor exposure. A lumped model for predicting instantaneous DEHP concentrations in gas phase, particle phase, dust phase, and surface phase is proposed. In the model, ventilation, penetration, deposition, and resuspension are considered to simulate particle concentrations with different size distributions including dust. A relationship between particle/air partition coefficient and particulate diameters is defined by the model. Five typical size distributions of particles in the literature are adopted for particle concentration simulation. The simulated results show an obvious difference of indoor concentrations in various phases for the different particle size distributions. The results imply a possible strategy to control various phase DEHP concentrations and exposures.

Introduction

World Heritage Site—Nanjing Tulou buildings, which were composed of thick (about one meter) rammed earth walls and wooden frameworks, are large-scale civilian residential buildings distributed across the southeastern China. The characteristics of indoor thermal environment in Tulou buildings are, however, unavailable in the literature.

Method

In this study, the measurement of indoor thermal environment along with a survey of both thermal comfort and energy consumption in Nanjing Tulou buildings was taken, both in summer and in winter.

Results

Based on the measurement data obtained, in a typical summer day, when the maximum outdoor temperature reached 35.0 °C, the maximum indoor temperatures of three Tulou buildings were 28.0, 28.6, and 28.9 °C, respectively, lower than the maximum indoor temperature of a normal rural building in that region. In a typical winter day, when the minimum outdoor temperature reached 9.9 °C, the minimum indoor temperatures of three Tulou buildings were 15.8, 14.4, and 13.8 °C, respectively, higher than the minimum indoor temperature of a normal rural building. Meanwhile, through the survey, the results showed that the thermal comfort satisfaction was higher and average energy consumption per household was lower in Tulou buildings than in normal rural buildings, respectively.

Discussion and conclusions

A model was set up using DeST-h to simulate the indoor temperature trends under different circumstances. It could be concluded that the better indoor thermal environment of Tulou buildings benefited from walls of substantial thickness, large ventilation rates in summer, and better airtightness in winter. Inspired by this study, the potential implications for future low-energy rural housing construction were discussed.

The objective of this paper is to study the effects of test methods on axillary temperature. Three test methods were that the mercury thermometer was only in the left armpit, alternately in left and right armpits, and alternatively passed from one subject to another. The results show that the effects of the three test methods on axillary temperature are obvious. Besides, the axillary temperature is obviously affected by handedness. For right-handed people, the axillary temperature in the right armpit is higher than that in the left armpit, while for left-handed people, it is the opposite. The maximum difference between right and left axillary temperatures is 0.60 °C in this research.

Although thermal comfort standards indicate that in hot climates natural ventilation can offset the temperature above which air conditioning becomes necessary, actual applications remain scarce. This paper details the results of the post-occupancy evaluation of an office building in the subtropical Chinese city of Shenzhen, which uses natural ventilation through user-controlled windows to reduce yearly air-conditioning time by 35 %. Investigation of the indoor environment and thermal comfort of occupants showed overall satisfaction. Electricity consumption of the office part of the building was found to be 60.2 kWh/m

2

.a, which is below the standard deviation band of a statistical sample of 57 Shenzhen office buildings. These results support the feasibility of using natural ventilation in mixed-mode buildings in subtropical climates for increased energy efficiency.

In order to improve the measurement accuracy for indoor volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and formaldehyde emissions, the polymethyl pentene (PMP) reference material and the liquid-inner tube diffusion-film-emission (LIFE) reference source were developed as two qualified tools to evaluate the performance of a chamber system for furniture/building material VOCs/formaldehyde emission tests. The temperature effect on the emission of PMP reference loaded with toluene and LIFE reference loaded with formaldehyde was measured in some pioneer researches. In this paper, the correlations of temperature and the emission parameters (diffusion coefficient of VOCs/formaldehyde in the material, material/gas partition coefficient) of both references were investigated. The correlations were fixed for each reference at the temperature of 10, 23, and 30 °C with the target VOCs of toluene for PMP and formaldehyde for LIFE. The results show that there are exponential relationships between the emission parameters and the temperature which are similar to the correlations developed for emissions from building materials. This phenomenon expends the usage of the original correlations addressing the temperature effect on building material’s emission parameters to general correlations of temperature effect on the parameters of indoor VOCs/formaldehyde emissions from building materials and reference sources.

This paper briefly describes the lower relative humidity of the heating room in winter in northern China than in southern China and discusses the relationship between the indoor relative humidity and the thermal comfort. Meanwhile, the required humidification of indoor air is calculated in this paper when it reaches to the indoor comfort zone, and the curve of the relative humidity is drawn with humidification changing. This paper also introduces the common household humidifiers and selection principles and gives the way how to control the indoor relative humidity. Furthermore, it shows how to calculate the humidification of indoor air for the comfortable design condition with heating technology. Consequently, several conclusions are reached.

In order to investigate indoor thermal environment and thermal comfort at rural houses, a field study was carried out at 10 rural houses in 2 villages near Harbin from December 2012 to January 2013. The environmental parameters and the subjects’ thermal sensation were collected simultaneously. The results showed that the indoor air temperature ranged from 9.0 to 21.8 °C, with an average of 16.6 °C. The operative temperature varied within the range of 10.5–22.7 °C, averaging 18.1 °C. The average relative humidity was 40.4 %. The mean air velocity was 0.08 m/s. The mean surface temperature of Chinese Kang was 35.1 °C. The mean surface temperature of exterior window was 9.5 °C. The neutral operative temperature was 18.5 °C. The lower limit of the accepted operative temperature by 80 % of the peasants was 10.6 °C, much lower than the specified heating temperature for urban residential buildings, because the peasants wore more clothes than residents in the urban. The mean clothing insulation was 1.47clo. 92.5 % of the subjects felt the thermal environment acceptable, and 92.5 % of the subjects felt the humidity of the environment acceptable. Regulating the Kang and the separated heating equipments were the main measures taken by the occupants to improve the indoor environment.

To comply with concentration requirements in previously constructed homes, many people are conducting bake-out in buildings prior to occupancy. The material temperature is considered a major factor that determines the effect of the bake-out. To confirm the effect of the bake-out, an improved model of the coupled heat and formaldehyde migration process is developed and analyzed to investigate the transport features in under floor heating system. Based on the theory of nonequilibrium thermodynamics and molecular kinetics, the mechanisms of the heat and mass transfer in dry porous building materials are discussed. The coupled heat and formaldehyde migration process in a floorboard is simulated under nonisothermal conditions of the temperature. Numerical results show that the effect of under floor heating becomes more and more important with the increasing of the temperature of the bottom layer, and the emission of formaldehyde from the board increases with the increasing of bake-out frequency. The longer the time of ventilation is in bake-out, the smaller the concentration remained in the chamber is. The removal efficiency of formaldehyde from building materials with a under board heating process within the ventilation period is prominent, but the energy consumed under such a mode is unsatisfied.

In order to find out indoor air quality (IAQ) condition at the Guilin public building, four office buildings’ IAQ had been investigated with the carry-home fast inspect instrument from November 2010 to September 2011 in Lingui New District. Based on the research data, IAQ in four public buildings in Guilin was evaluated using the decibel concept index method. The results show that SBS happens in three of the buildings. The main pollutants indoor are PM

10

and HCHO. Due to the decibel concept, index method requires few assessment indexes; it is easy to operate; however, there will be a large deviation if some unmeasured parameter value is over proof. Regarding CO

2

, TVOC, and HCHO as chemical pollutant, evaluation index representatives are suitable to estimate IAQ when considering the condition of China. Comparatively, the composite index method may sometimes underestimate it.

The traditional dwelling house is taken as the object to identify the main architectural elements which affect natural ventilation in the southern area of Anhui province. Based on CFD method, the traditional dwelling house in southern area of Anhui province was simulated under different size and shape of courtyard, and also the effect of interior lighting is conducted by using Ecotect. The results show that the best size of courtyard has a nice natural ventilation and interior lighting with the length of distance between the midline of the two windows of bedrooms and the width of the yard. The average wind speed reaches 0.1 m/s and average age of air is 340 s in living room and bedroom, and lighting coefficient of living room and bedroom is 5 %.

Based on 15,266 questionnaires which were filled out by parents of preschool children, this study investigated the distribution of heating and ventilation equipments and the habit of natural ventilation among young families in Shanghai. The mean age ± standard deviation (SD) of child’s mothers is 32.6 ± 3.8 years. The usage rates of coal stove, district heating, or individual heating are smaller than 0.5 %, floor heating 1.3 %, electric room heater 20.7 %, and others 2.0 %. The most common equipment for heating in winter is air conditioner (77.6 %). But 12.4 % of the families still have no residential heating. The usage rate of exhaust fan in kitchen and in bathroom is 16.1 and 78.6 %, respectively. Most of (86.2 %) the families have smoking exhaust ventilator in kitchen. In addition, 44.0, 62.0, 45.3, and 17.5 % of the families frequently open the windows in spring, summer, autumn, and winter, respectively. The usage rates of those equipments and the habit in natural ventilation are significantly associated with the location of residences. Generally, more urban residents frequently open windows than suburban and rural residents. Our results indicate that more urbanization, more new-fashioned air-handled equipments are used in Shanghai families.

The angle factor of the human body is an important parameter of thermal exchanges. The purpose of this paper is to explain the indoor thermal radiation environment of the human body in detail. Starting with a simplified analytical model, an angle factor calculation between a human body and its surroundings is executed. Firstly, a simplified expression of the angle factor between the human body and the surrounding area is conducted. Secondly, the angle factor of variation with body position in the room is shown in detail, using the model testified before. The calculated results revealed that no matter where the human body position was, the angle factor between a human body and the ground surface was much higher than any other surface in the room with

L

×

W

×

H

(6 × 4 × 3 m). Thirdly, the angle factor between the human body and each surface of a room is calculated by the simplified analytical expression. A relationship between the angle factor and room dimension is analyzed. At last, the fitted equations between the angle factor and room dimensions were built separately. The fitted equations are convenient with an acceptability of precision, which can reduce the complex calculation of angle factor.

Central air-conditioning system of Liaoning Provincial Museum has been taken as the target to study microbiology contamination since it is a typical public building. Three AHUs that conduct with different functional areas were considered as testing object in the museum, including constant temperature and humidity AHU B1, B2, and B3. Using microbiological method, six levels of impingement air microorganism sampler, fluorescent optical microscope, high-pressure steam sterilization pot, thermostatic incubator, thermostatic oven, biochemical incubator, and testing instruments are selected to test dust and air, which contain microbial organisms in the AHUs. Results show that the average product dust of the museum is 12.36 g/m

2

; the dust contains bacterial concentration in the microbiological is 85.2 × 104 cfu/m

2

, the air contains bacterial concentration in the microbiological is 568.19 cfu/m

3

, and the fungus concentration is 938.37 cfu/m

3

; the advantage strains in microbiologic is gram-positive bacterium; advantage strains in fungus is penicillium, aspergillums, branch spore mold.

For suspended particles coming from the outdoor environment system, Brownian coagulation is the main reason that causes the sedimentation of the indoor particles. In this paper, we first gave particles a reasonable lognormal size distribution, using the moment method, and predicted the change of particle-size distribution (PSD) in the diffusion settlement process. The results showed that with the motion of fluid, diffusion and coagulation happened to the particle simultaneously, and the volume of the particles was continuously increasing, while particle concentration decreasing. In the interface between the dynamic fluid and static fluid, the diameter of the particles reached the maximum.

In a subway environment control system without screen doors, the tunnel piston wind enters the platform with the train and significantly affects the platform’s thermal environment. The piston wind distributed on the platform here is defined as the platform piston wind. In this case, the diffusion regularity of platform piston wind is regarded as a wall jet along the platform’s length and width, and its origin is a piston wind jet at the tunnel exit. According to classical wall jet theory, the jet can be approximately divided into initial and main sections in the development process. This study is based on the mathematical theory model. The model divided the platform piston wind velocity distribution into the initial section and the main section. This platform piston wind mathematical theory model is solved with time circle and along the vertical wall directions. The various conditions include changing the tunnel cross sections, train cross sections, the maximum train velocities. It is concluded that the cross-sectional ratio and maximum train velocities are the main factors on this velocities distribution. The building up and solution of this platform piston wind mathematical model serve as an important reference for the optimal design of practical thermal environments in engineering.

Indoor air quality has a great impact on our health, and there are many reasons contributing to the pollution of indoor air. At present, people have widely concerned about air-conditioning system, which is regarded as potential microbial pollution sources. The study is about separation and identification of fungal microorganisms on the surface of the central air-conditioning system filters, and then doing research on the colonies and mycelium grown and reproduce regular of fungal microorganisms in different thermal environment, which aim to lay the groundwork of effective air microbial contamination solved by thermal methods. This study has shown that

Penicillium spp

and Cladosporium spp are dominant fungi, and the number of CFUs is 600 and 140 cfu/cm², respectively. No matter constant or variable temperature conditions, the reproduce rate of

Penicillium

is faster than

A. glaucus

and the relationship between colony diameter and time is liner relation. Through these constant and variable experiments, it is found that variable temperature does obvious restrain on

Penicillium spp

, while

A. glaucus

has the same tendency.

Compared with variable air volume (VAV) system, the ceiling radiant cooling panel (CRCP) system integrated with displacement ventilation (DV) has better thermal comfort and excellent energy-saving potential. As a result, CRCP/DV has been paid more attention and used widely in advanced buildings in recent years. However, the indoor air quality (IAQ) under the above-mentioned system still needs to be tested. Firstly, this article studies two zones stratified by ventilation system in a room. Between the two zones is a transitional area called as stratified boundary which divides a room into two spaces with totally different air quality. It is analyzed that there are three important factors that decide the height of the stratified boundary. Secondly, the paper uses an office room as an example studied numerically. To simulate this room, a numerical model using finite volume method for CRCP/DV is created based on computational fluid dynamics (CFD). The objective of this model is to research contaminant removal efficiency of active contaminants (as indicated by CO

2

) concentration and passive contaminants (as indicated by VOCs) concentration under CRCP/DV. As a consequence, it is found that contaminant removal efficiency of active contaminants performs well while that of passive contaminants is poor. At last, this paper analyzes the cause and proposes an optimal control strategy to improve IAQ. This research can provide guidance for the buildings with CRCP/DV demanding high IAQ.

In terms of human body comfort and energy efficiency in buildings, it is significantly important to do the research on indoor air environment and human body dynamic thermal comfort. This article firstly analyzes their relationship between objective and subjective aspects of the air atmosphere. Secondly, according to thermal equilibrium and the main thermal comfort index, the influence factors of thermal comfort are described, which involve indoor temperature, air humidity, air distribution, the mean radiant temperature on the different surfaces, IAQ, etc. At last, a security, economics, reasonable, and health air processing scheme is put forward.

Based on the current researches on the natural ventilated urban transportation tunnel with shafts, fluid flowing characteristics under traffic jam were analyzed and problems were pointed out. According to similarity laws, a small-scale model tunnel was set up including vehicle heat sources. Air velocities were tested out functioned only by thermal pressure. A three-dimensional unsteady flow numerical model was chosen. Temperature and velocity field were simulated with Fluent software. Its velocities of three identical positions were verified by that of experiments. Further sensitivity analyses including vehicle speed, shaft number, and buried section length show that under traffic jam, thermal pressure is a main factor which influences its inside flow field while not traffic wind pressure; air velocities are non-uniform inside a buried section, and the flow field of its midst is influenced little by shaft number for it being far away from adjacent shafts; increasing length of a buried section contributes to its increased air velocities.

An actual office building with ventilated double-skin facade (VDSF) in cold region has been studied for researching the influence of VDSF as envelope to the indoor thermal environment in winter. Setting up an experimental system to test some factors which effected the indoor thermal environment, such as the solar radiation intensity in winter, outdoor temperature, application of VDSF or not, the airflow window of internal facade in opening and closing mode. The research provided a reasonable way of using VDSF in winter.

Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) emission from building materials are the main pollution sources of indoor air quality (IAQ). The migration characteristics of VOCs in porous building materials are important to control VOCs concentration level in indoor environment. In this study, we examined VOCs desorbed from matrix of building material and diffused in pore of porous building material using lattice Boltzmann method (LBM) with different spatial scale. In pore scale of porous building materials, the LBM model of gas diffusion was developed, which is based on the theory of binary mixtures proposed by Luo Lishi. The quartet structure generation set (QSGS) proposed by Wang moran is used to construct the random porous building material. The unsteady binary gas diffusion with third boundary condition in channel was simulated with this model. The results of simulation were compared with analytical solution. The effective mass diffusion coefficient of gas diffusion through random porous media was calculated in this chapter. The comparison of effective mass diffusion coefficient shows that the numerical simulation results agree with the traditional empirical model, so reliability of this model was verified. Based on the assumption of Henry law, an approach for disposing boundary conditions of adsorbed gas was proposed. The process of VOC emitted from porous media was investigated with different partition coefficient. It is concluded that transient concentration in porous media of VOC will be increased with the increase in partition coefficient. In representative elementary volume (REV) scale, the VOC emission rate of porous building material to static chamber was simulated by LBM in static chamber. VOC concentration of static chamber in emission process agrees with analytical method very well.

As chemical reaction can significantly alter concentrations of indoor pollutants and reaction products often are more irritating than their precursors, indoor gas chemical reaction is one significant factor affecting air quality and occupants’ health and comfort. Meanwhile, reaction level and product quantity depend on reactants concentration and residence time, impacted by ventilation patterns. For air environment of office room, influence of different factors on indoor gas chemical reaction under four kinds of ventilation patterns were analyzed with CFD, including air exchange rate, supplied air velocity, and ozone concentration of supplied air. One kind of typical reaction between ozone and terpene, including d-limonene and alpha-terpinene, was chosen for analysis. Distribution characteristics of reactants and products concentration are given, and variations of their mean concentration in respiratory region with impacting factors are provided and compared.

In order to understand how green space and water body could mitigate urban heat island, a study was carried out to quantitatively evaluate the influence of park/garden and lake characteristics on surrounding air temperatures. Five thousand one hundred and eighty-five air temperature data of the surrounding areas of 6 parks and 3 lakes in Chongqing were collected during the daytime. The data were analyzed using regression analysis of the park and lake characteristics such as area, landscape shape index (LSI), green ratio, altitude, distance to lake body, and canopy comprehensive temperature (CCT). The findings were as follows: (1) the cool island effect of parks with a maximum of 3.6 °C was greater than that of lake with maximum of 2.9 °C, (2) key factors influencing thermal environment of park and lake were respectively due to the park area and CCT, (3) the less LSI or the rounder the shape of the parks and lakes were, the better the improvement effects of parks and lakes on the thermal environment of the surrounding environment, and (4) the statistic model of parks and lakes could effectively predict the cool island intensity (CII) of parks and surrounding air temperature of lakes (SAT) in Chongqing, the R

2

was 0.787 and 0.721, respectively.

Mobile survey is one of the significant and frequently used methods in the field measurement of urban heat island (UHI). In order to solve the synchronously modifying problem of calculating the UHI intensity and overcome the deficiency of mobile survey data, a mathematic model was proposed by designing a round-trip mobile survey route and analyzing the method of calculating UHI intensity in detail. This model can be used for calculating the heat island intensity at any time during the survey period. Associated with a mobile survey test of UHI carried out in Chongqing, the parameters of the mathematic model are explained, and the results are analyzed in this paper. The results indicate that this mathematic model can effectively solve the synchronously modifying problem generated during the process of calculating UHI intensity using mobile survey data.

Ground pollutants such as

$$ {\text{SO}}_{2} $$

, CO, and other gaseous pollutants generated by the traffic always harm the environment of urban residence communities. Fences or enclosures are common for residence communities in China for security reasons, while they really hinder the wind flow and the pollutant diffusion. In this paper, the computational fluid dynamic (CFD) method has been used to simulate how the fence affects the diffusion of the traffic pollutants around a building. The

k

-

ε

equation is used to simulate the diffusion of the CO. The results show that (1) the fences hinder the diffusion of the CO on the horizontal direction, but they promote the diffusion in the vertical direction. (2) The higher the fence, the more the CO concentration between the fence and the building. (3) When a ground pollutant source is on the leeward side of a building, it poses the greatest threat to the air quality around the building. It has the least threat when it is set on both sides of the building in wind direction.

This paper analyzes the impact of height on the air-conditioning (A/C) load for a hypothetical thousand-meter scale megatall building in Beijing by both the energy simulation software TRNSYS16 (Transient System Simulation Program) and the mesoscale meteorological model WRFV3.4.1 (Weather Research and Forecasting Model). We assumed that the building would be an office building according to the investigation on the use of the supertalls and megatalls that had been constructed. We modified the database of TRNSYS16 according to the result from WRF based on the vertical distribution of the atmospheric parameters used in the calculation of building A/C load and calculated the A/C load of each room at different heights. The result shows that the A/C load gradually decreased with the increase in the height. The room A/C load at the height of 1000 m above the ground was 30 % less than that close to the ground.

Based on parameters of main fan diffuser in such a coal mine, the paper set forward two novel types of dust-controlling equipment, and the physical models of two equipments are constructed. Kinetic and dynamic fields of two-phase flow in two equipments are numerically calculated, and the both coefficients of performance are comparatively analyzed. The results are shown as follows: (1) in the condition of non-dust-controlling equipment, the dust pollutes the industry square of the coal mine; (2) the two novel dust-controlling equipments can decrease the quantity of escaping dust; (3) the efficiency of dust controlling of equipment of closed-baffles diffuser is higher than that of the non-baffle diffuser; (4) the energy consumed of equipment of enclosed-baffles diffuser is lower than that of non-baffle diffuser. According to technique and engineering, the reformation application is dust-controlling equipment of non-baffle, the data are shown that the novel equipment can control partly the dust escaping, and the dust pollution can be relieved in the industry square of coal mine.

The aim of this study was to understand the influence of the architectural morphology on thermal environment of an urban residential district in severe cold region by taking a typical urban residential district in severe cold region as research object. The numerical simulation was carried out to study the buildings’ impact on the local thermal environment under the different height in the center area and evaluate the contribution of wind speed and temperature to microclimatic effect based on the joint action of the wind velocity, temperature, and solar radiation in this residential district, and find the varied rules of the wind velocity and temperature by the change in the center regional buildings’ height. In addition, the outdoor personnel comfort in this residential district was analyzed by the principle of estimation on aeolian environment. The results can provide theoretical reference for the buildings’ planning and prediction of thermal environment in the severe cold area and has proved the feasibility of buildings’ planning based on the microclimatic effects.

Global warming caused by greenhouse gas (GHG) emission has become a common concern in the international community. Building sector is one of the major areas to produce GHG emissions. There are a lot of carbon emission researches by the domestic and overseas scholars, although the international standards for carbon accounting have not been established in the building sector. In this paper, we first introduce the major modeling techniques for estimating the national or urban building energy consumption in brief. And then give an overview of urban building energy consumption and carbon emissions accounting models based on these methods, particularly describe the scale and the scope applied in the accounting, the relationships between the models, the evaluation and analysis of the existing models focused on their purposes, strengths, and shortcomings. Finally, the main part of this paper puts forward an elementary conceives to establishing a more smaller scale of carbon accounting model used the life cycle assessment (LCA) theory aim at regional building energy system. And we wish the carbon accounting model can guide the design of new regional building energy system and the retrofit of existing regional building energy system.

With the expansion of city, more and more tall buildings arise. It is very important to understand the wind field around buildings for creating safe and comfortable wind environment. At present, three kinds of methods can be used to obtain the wind field information around tall buildings. They are wind tunnel experiment, wind field measurement, and numerical simulation. Numerical simulation is the cheapest way, in which Reynolds averaged Navier–Stokes equations and large eddy simulation approaches are commonly used to simulate turbulent flow. To ensure the accuracy and reliability of the two approaches, the solution validation studies are needed. In this paper, Shear Stress Transport (SST)

$$ k - \omega $$

model has been used in solving Reynolds averaged Navier–Stokes equations (RANS) and kinetic-energy transport subgrid model has been employed in large eddy simulation (LES) in the simulation of the flow field around a square column. Comparing the numerical results with experimental data, the characteristics of the two models are revealed and their reliability is analyzed. The results show that both kinetic-energy transport model in LES and SST

$$ k - \omega $$

model in RANS can be used to simulate the field around building but the results are different. With kinetic-energy transport model in LES, the vortex generation and a group of high vertex zones are observed.

The climates differ greatly in China, ranging from severe cold to hot. This significantly influences building design strategies used to achieve indoor thermal comfort. To choose proper passive strategies for different climate zones in the early design stage, bioclimatic chart method has been used during the past decades. However, limited efforts have been conducted to test this method. This paper focuses on developing an approach to choose suitable passive strategies by combining building simulation tools and thermal comfort theories together. To achieve this purpose, hourly simulation program was used to obtain indoor thermal environment based on building description and outdoor weather condition. Adaptive thermal comfort model was used to determine whether indoor thermal environment was comfortable.

The effect of power plant on air quality is a focused issue. The intention of this paper is to survey the air quality around a power plant in Xi’an. The concentration of pollutants in non-heating season and heating season has been tested, and the concentration of pollutants in different time of a day has been tested. In non-heating season, the concentrations of sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide at each test point meet the national standard of daily average concentration. The distance of maximum concentration of pollutants is 2 km to the leeward. The concentration of particular matter at six test points exceeded the national standard of daily average concentration. In heating season, the concentrations of sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxide, and particulate matter at each test point meet the national standard of daily average concentration. Compare the results of non-heating season and heating season, the concentrations of particular matter are higher in non-heating season. The road dust and the sand soil dust have an important effect on the concentrations of particular matter.

Due to the lack of domestic hourly solar radiation measured data, models which are used to separate hourly diffuse and direct components of global solar radiation on horizontal surface are always referencing foreign models. However, because of different geographical factors (such as latitude and longitude) and meteorological conditions (such as atmospheric transparency, temperature, and humidity), it is difficult to have broad application. This study uses hourly solar radiation measured data from Shanghai to evaluate and compare models in the published literature which were used to separate hourly diffuse and direct components of global solar radiation on horizontal surface, and several relatively accurate available models are chosen. Then, new improved models are consequently proposed and compared with these existing models for calculating hourly diffuse solar radiation based on statistical parametric analysis, residual histogram analysis, and fitted curve analysis. It is found that these new improved models are in better agreement with the measured data, and they are more suitable for calculating diffuse and direct solar radiation under complicated weather conditions.