Comparison of air infiltration rate and air leakage tests under reductive sealing for an industrial building.

The paper compares air infiltration rate measurements with air leakage measurements in a modem industrial building. In each case the tests have been performed firstly with the building 'as-built', and then with the major leakage components sealed. The building investigated was of a cladding wall construdion with U-values of 0.6 W.m^-2.K^-1 for both the walls and roof. It had a floor area of 466 m². The volume was 3050 m³. Tracer decay tests and constant concentration methods (both using N20) were performed in the building to establish the air infiitration rates. The air leakage of the building was determined by the fan pressurisation method. The paper presents the results of the measurements and the discussion focuses on the variations of the air infiltration rate due to changes in intemd and external conditions. The results from the three different techniques used are compared. The results show that there was good agreement between the tracer decay and constant concentration methods when determining the air infiltration rate. There was also good agreement under reductive sealing between the reductions in measured air infiltration rate and measured air leakages. The paper is a result from research work funded by the Building Research Establishment to investigate air infiltration rates and air leakage rates in Industrial Buildings.