English

This paper presents the results of full-scale experiments in a realistic building to evaluate natural convective heat and mass transfer through doorway-like apertures under small temperature differentials. The zone-to-zone temperature differences were nominally between re and 2.5°C. Heat transfer correlations, coefficient of discharge, and thermal stratification are reported for air (Pr = 0. 71), an enclosure aspect ratio of 0.26, aperture height relative to the enclosure height in the range of 0. 75 to l, and aperture width relative to the enclosure width in the range 0.29 to 0. 79.

Air flow conditions at the supply opening, which are used as boundary conditions in a numerical simulation, must be applied in order to proceed with the numerical solution of the air flow within a room. Among the conditions usually specified are the turbulence parameters, including the turbulence kinetic energy or the turbulence intensity and turbulent kinetic energy dissipation rate. Investigators have used a variety of expressions to estimate these quantities. A review of these expressions is presented in this paper.

A sudden contamination of the outdoor air by some toxic gas can have several causes. To find out the protection afforded by sheltering indoors was the primary goal of the investigation. The object of the computational approach was a single family house with 2 floors. Three different models were utilized to calculate the infiltration air flows, the contaminant transport inside the building and the temperature decay of the building.

ASTM has recently standardized a methodology for measuring the leakage of residential air distribution systems to unconditioned zones. The standard includes two alternative leakage measurement techniques, one of which requires only a blower door, whereas the second technique requires a flowcapture hood as well as a blower door. This paper reports on the results of field measurements in 30 houses using both measurement techniques, and analyzes the relative strengths and weaknesses of the two techniques.