There are two main soil gases of current concern to human health. These are radon, which is a carcinogen, and landfill gas, which is explosive and toxic. Both can be found at significant levels in the soil below buildings in certain locations in the country. It is a responsibility of the Building Research Establishment to find cost effective ways to protect new and existing buildings from the entry of these gases into buildings.

This paper describes the measured and calculated results of airflow rates and pollutant concentration profiles in an airtight test house, the aim being to evaluate the calculation model COMIS for multizone air infiltration and pollutant transport. Firstly, the leakage areas of internal doors, exterior walls and windows were measured by the fan pressurization method. Secondly, two measurements were carried out, assuming that the test house consisted of ten zones.

A three-dimensional drift-flux model for particle movements in turbulent airflows in buildings is presented. The interaction between the carrier air and the particles has been treated as a one-way coupling, assuming the effect of particles on air turbulence is negligible due to low solid loadings and comparatively small particle settling velocities. Turbulence effects are modelled with a standard K-E model. Wall functions are applied at near-wall grid points. Aerosol measurements carried out under turbulent room flow conditions are used to validate the numerical calculations.

The pressure field in fluid systems reflects the flow configuration. Measurements of the pressure along the perimeter of a slot ventilated room have been conducted for different room sizes. The momentum of the jet at the end of the room is decreased with increasing room length. The impingement region (region where the influence of the opposing wall is present) starts, independent of room size, when the distance from the supply device is about 70% of the room length. Corner flows could not be predicted by CFD using the linear eddy viscosity or standard stress models. However.

The performance of a heat-pipe heat recovery unit was tested in a two-zone chamber with a horizontal partition. Air velocity was found to have a significant effect on the effectiveness of heat recovery. The effectiveness decreased with increasing air velocity. Simulation of air flow was carried out for the test chamber under natural ventilation conditions. It was shown that a heat-pipe heat exchanger can be used to reclaim exhaust heat in naturally ventilated buildings to effect energy conservation.

The steepest descent and simulated annealing optimization techniques are used to simultaneously estimate the effective mixing volumes and air exchange rates of a large partition less building exhibiting heterogeneous spatial air flow conditions. The optimization is conducted using varying quantities and qualities of simulated tracer gas measurements. A simulated three-compartment system is numerically investigated to assess the performance of the parameter estimation methods.

Constant injection of tracer gas was used to determine the airtightness of a straight length of300 X 300 mm square duct in a laboratory setting. Holes are performed in the ductwork which is connected to a fan with variable speed control to simulate leakages. The holes can be sealed with rubber bungs to simulate an airtight ductwork. 'Stationary' and 'mobile' methods have been developed. The stationary method is suitable for conditions where the locations of the leaks in the ductwork is known.

Particle loss augmentation in turbulent flow was studied experimentally. Experiments were performed in a I SO mm square ventilation duct. Small tracer particles of size ranging from 0.7-7.l μ.m were used to study deposition enhancement with streamwise-periodic disturbances mounted on one of the principal walls, under turbulent flow. A new and highly sensitive analytical technique was adopted to determine the spatial mass flux along the ribbed duct. On some surfaces, particle deposition enhancement as much as seven times higher than on .smooth surfaces was observed.