Zone to zone tracer gas measurements; laboratory calibration and values of air flows up and down stairs in houses.

This work is concerned with measuring air flows between the floors of houses. A simple measuring technique is described in which two portable SF6 systems were employed. The design and construction of the portable system are presented. A comparison of air flow patterns in a superinsulated house and a standard house is made. Results showed that the air flow between the upper and lower floors of the superinsulated house was about 20 m3/h compared with 100 m3/h in the traditionally built house.

Further studies of passive ventilation systems - assessment of design and performance criteria.

Increases in building air tightness for purposes of energy saving have, unfortunately, also led to a significant increase in the number of instances of condensation damage, particularly in domestic properties. The cost effective control of condensation is a large problem in the United Kingdom, especially for local authorities with large housing stocks.

Air heating systems in airtight multifamily residential buildings.

This paper presents an analysis of indoor climate in buildings with forced air heating systems. The results is based on indoor climate measurements and extensive interviews with the occupants. The analysis shows that design criteria is of great importance for the occupants conceptions of thermal comfort in buildings with air heating systems. Forced air heating systems could be a way to provide mechanical supply air with less problems with the thermal comfort, such as draught, than in ordinary supply- and exhaust air ventilation systems.

A comparison of upward and downward air distribution systems.

Traditionally air has been supplied from the ceiling to the occupants below opposing the buoyancy effects due to heat convected from people, lights and machines. There has also been concern that if air supply outlets are installed at low level near people the chances of draughts and noise are high. The development of swirl air diffusers in Sweden and Germany overcomes these problems and allows a wider consideration of air distribution systems when designing buildings. This also offers flexibility in planning the distribution of electrical systems and piped services.

Displacement ventilation by different types of diffuses.

The paper describes measuring results of the air movement from three different types of diffusers for displacement ventilation. Two of the diffusers are lowlevel wall mounted diffusers, one with a low and one with a high initial entrainment. The third diffuser is of the floor mounted type. The air flow close to the diffusers and in the rest of the room is analysed. Velocity decay in the flow from the low-level diffusers is given as a function of the Archimeaes number, and the paper suggests a general equation for this part of the flow.

The large area quantitative visualisation method of air streams.

The project is aimed to develop the quantitative method of visualization of the air steams in application to the indoor problems of heauilg , ventilating and air conditioning. The geometrically well defined light sheet is crossing the examined space and determines the plane of observation. The photographic camera is placed perpendicularly to this plane at a distance of a few meters. The flow is seeded with the soap bubbles of the diameter 3-4 mm. The light is reflected from those bubbles which are crossing the illuminating sheet.

The use of a guarded zone pressurization technique to measure air flow permeabilities of a multizone building.

In the past few years, research efforts have been made to acquire accurate knowledge about infiltration and ventilation in multi-zone buildings. By this way, a wide variety of modelling techniques have been developed which suffer of a lack of satisfactory validations. The purpose of this work is to set up a data bank of high quality measurements which will serve to cany out an empirical validation of multi-zone air infiltration programs. Among other data, a complete set of air flow permeabilities of a well known experimental midsize building will be included to this bank.

Analysis of errors for a fan-pressurization technique for measuring interzonal air leakage.

The problem of predicting air flows in a multi-zone building has received considerable attention in the past ten years. An important issue identified by this work was the lack of reliable measurements of the flow resistances between the zones of such buildings. This report analyzes the uncertainties associated with a fan-pressurization technique for measuring the interzonal leakage (inverse flow resistance) in a multi-zone building. The technique involves two blower doors, one in each of the two zones between which the leakage is being measured.

Integral mass balances and pulse injection tracer technique.

Tracer gas techniques for measuring airflow rates in building systems are considered. These techniques are classified in terms of tracer gas injection strategy employed and mass balance relationships used to analyze measured tracer concentration data. The discussion focuses on one class of tracer techniques - the pulse injection techniques - based upon pulse injection strategies and integral mass balance relationships.

Air motion in the vicinity of air supply devices for displacement ventilation.

In displacement ventilation systems, air flow rates, temperature and the design of the air supply device strongly influence the parameters which decide the thermal comfort. This paper reviews experiments and theoretical models which show the connection between t.hese parameters. It is indicated that the Archimedes number of the supply air is the parameter which decides the air velocity in the area close to the floor. (The Archimedes number is the ratio between buoyancy and inertia forces).

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