Contaminant and Airflow Transport Modeling
Abstract
If a toxic contaminant is released or a disease has spread, to prevent casualties and provide appropriate medical attention, it is crucial to have fast and reliable information on the potential problematic areas and the location of the contamination source. The current state-of-the-art numerical models can calculate the contaminant dispersion from the known source or predict the source location based on the measured contaminant distributions. Both of these types of models had great development efforts in the past ten years. However, one of the major weaknesses for these models is in the incapability to accurately take into account infiltration of the outdoor air through the building envelope. Considering that majority of the population spends most of their time indoors, this weakness is serious. Therefore, we are systemically working on a new approach to infiltration modeling that takes into account weather data, type of urban environment, building age, construction materials, orientation, and internal partitioning.
Application to Homeland Security
An accurate infiltraion model when developed and validated will enhance performance of contaminant dispersion modeling in urban environments to correctly account for the exposure of building occupants.
Technologies
Contaminant transport simulation tools will be enhanced with the accurate infiltration modeling, which represents roughly ten to forty percent of all airflow in buildings.
Publications/Talks
- Vukovic, V., and Srebric, J. 2007. "Neural Network Locator of Contaminant Sources (LOCS) in Extraordinary Incidents," under review in Building and Environment.
- Srebric, J., Yuan, J., and Novoselac, A. 2007. "In-Situ Experimental Validation of a Coupled Multi-zone and CFD Model for Building Contaminant Transport Simulations,” under review in ASHRAE Transactions.
- Vukovic, V., and Srebric, J. 2007. "Application of Neural Networks Trained with Multi-Zone Models for Fast and Accurate Detection of Contaminant Sources in Buildings” in press ASHRAE Transactions.
- Srebric, J., Vukovic, V., He, G., and Yang, X. 2007. "CFD Boundary Conditions for Contaminant Dispersion Simulations around Human Occupants in Indoor Environments,” in press for a special issue of Building and Environment.
- He, G., Yang, X., and Srebric, J. 2005. "Removal of Contaminants Released from Room Surfaces by Displacement and Mixing Ventilation: Modeling and Validation,” Indoor Air: International Journal of Indoor Air, 15(5): 367-380.
- He, G., Yang, X. and Srebric, J. 2005. "Effects of Source Type and Location on Contaminant Dispersion in a Displacement Ventilated Room,” ASHARE Transaction, 111(1): 646-652.
- Yang, X., Srebric, J., Li, X. and He, G. 2004. "Performance of Three Air Distribution Systems in VOC Removal from an Area Source,” Building and Environment, 39(11):1289-1299.
- Yuan, J. and Srebric, J. 2004. "Transient Prediction of Contaminant Distribution by Introducing Energy Load Calculations into Multi-zone Modeling,” CIB World Building Congress 2004, CD ROM, paper no. 148, 11 pages, May 2-7, 2004, Toronto, Canada.
- Zhai, Z., Srebric, J. and Chen, Q. 2003. "Prediction and Control of Chemical and Biological Agent Dispersion in Buildings," Int. J. of Ventilation, 2(3): 251-264.
- Novoselac, A. and Srebric, J. 2003. "Comparison of Air Exchange Efficiency and Contaminant Removal Effectiveness as IAQ indices,” ASHRAE Transactions, 109(2): 339-349.
- Srebric, J. and Chen, Q. 2002. "An Example of Verification, Validation, and Reporting of Indoor Environment CFD Analyses," ASHRAE Transactions, 108(2): 185-194.
- Srebric, J. and Chen, Q. 2002. "Simplified Numerical Models for Complex Air Supply Diffusers," Int. J. of HVAC&R Research, 8(3): 277-294.
- Chen, Q. and Srebric, J. 2002. "A Procedure for Verification, Validation, and Reporting of Indoor Environment CFD Analyses," Int. J. of HVAC&R Research, 8(2): 201-216.
- Chen, Q. and Srebric, J. 2000. "Application of CFD Tools for Indoor and Outdoor Environment Design," Invited paper, Int. J. on Architectural Science, 1(1): 14-29.
- Srebric, J., Chen, Q., and Glicksman, L.R. 1999. "Validation of a Zero-equation Turbulence Model for Complex Indoor Airflows," ASHRAE Transactions, 105(2): 414-427.
Contact the Investigators
Jelena Srebric, Architectural Engineering