English

Considered a wide range of indoor and outdoor urban microenvironments in a study of the concentrations of 15 volatile organic compounds. For most VOCs, mean concentrations in cars exceeded those at heavily trafficked roadside locations. No correlation was found between indoors and outdoors, though concentrations were higher indoors. As a consequence, in poorly ventilated buildings, indoor emission source strength is considered a more significant influence on concentrations of VOCs in indoor air than outdoor air concentrations.

Describes a survey investigating the levels of carbon monoxide, sulphur dioxide, respirable particulate matter, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and mutagenicity in the PM5 fraction, as well as temperature and humidity, inside 24 houses in La Pintana, Santiago. An additional survey covered symptoms, signs and respiratory diseases possibly associated with socio-economic factors in the area.

Looked at seven residential buildings in northern England to analyse the causes of short-term variations in particle number concentrations. High short-term peak concentrations arose from cooking, smoking and physical activity. The loss rate of particles after emissions stopped depended on the particle size range. The relative importance of deposition and air exchange in particle loss rates were quantified by simultaneous measurement of particle number concentration and air exchange rate.

States that many environmental parameters need to be considered when assessing the quality of the air in an indoor environment, with an emphasis on clear definitions. Outlines the factors that determine IAQ and provides guidance on how to design an appropriate sampling strategy for organic compounds in the vapour phase. Reviews the present state of development of European and international standards for methods of measurement of indoor air pollutants.

Describes a simple design tool called the 'office building module' (OPTI), which is intended to help building professionals to incorporate the impact of design choices on energy consumption when designing a project. Emphasises the importance of the program's user-friendliness, minimisation of data and speed. Dynamic thermal programs are needed to compute energy needs and estimate overheating. Current programs suffer from slowness and the need for large amounts of data.

Gives the results of an investigation on the combined effect of balcony, opening design and internal division on the indoor airflows pattern of a living zone located on the second floor of a two storey building. It was done using N3S software. The local average velocity coefficient as a function of the position in horizontal sections of 1.00 and 1.50 m in height was used, for activity with sitting and standing positions. The number of measurement points in the living zone were used to calculate the average velocity coefficient.

Describes details of a passive building component consisting of a ventilated roof with a maintained wet lower surface of the cavity over which the external air flows. Numerical simulations were carried out for thermal performance evaluation purposes of the thermal field, flow field and water vapour concentration of air within the duct. Suitable procedures were coded and linked to a commercial program for computational fluid dynamics, in order to obtain an estimate of the thermal cooling flux on the wet surface.

The potential of natural ventilation control techniques when applied to full scale buildings is investigated with the use of both experimental and theoretical tools. An outdoor test cell was used to conduct experiments and two window types (bottom hung and sliding) were tested in different configurations under various meteorological conditions. Describes how theoretical methods for calculating airflow rates through the windows were developed, based on the experimental results and specific modelling activities. On comparison, good agreement was observed.

States that one of the most important parameters for multizone airflow simulation is the wind pressure distribution around a building. Pressure coefficients usually form the input, and the values derives from wind tunnel studies. Alternatives to wind tunnel tests are suggested, namely the use of statistical regression analysis of data obtained from wind tunnel studies. Describes how pressure coefficient values for a shop building were generated using a new wind pressure distribution model based on the regression analysis as well as on wall averaged values from published data.

Describes a simple design tool called the 'office building module' (OPTI), which is intended to help building professionals to incorporate the impact of design choices on energy consumption when designing a project. Emphasises the importance of the program's user-friendliness, minimisation of data and speed. Dynamic thermal programs are needed to compute energy needs and estimate overheating. Current programs suffer from slowness and the need for large amounts of data.