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ANT: A Multizone Indoor Air Quality (IAQ) and Ventilation Analysis Plug-in for Algorithm Aided Design
Published
Author(s)
Jialei Shen, William Stuart Dols, Brian Polidoro
Abstract
To facilitate the design and analysis related to indoor air quality (IAQ) and ventilation in buildings, a plug-in named ANT (contam-in-ANT) has been developed for Rhino/Grasshopper, an algorithm aided design platform. ANT is a whole-building IAQ and ventilation analysis tool based on CONTAM. ANT can be utilized to perform multizone simulations to assess airborne transmission risks, estimate health impacts due to inhalation exposure, perform parametric analyses, and optimize performance-driven building design and system settings. Cost-effective optimization of IAQ and ventilation for existing buildings is critical to the retrofitting required for these structures to achieve sustainability goals by 2050. A case study of a medium office building is used to demonstrate ANT and the post-processing of simulation results within Rhino/Grasshopper.
Shen, J.
, Dols, W.
and Polidoro, B.
(2024),
ANT: A Multizone Indoor Air Quality (IAQ) and Ventilation Analysis Plug-in for Algorithm Aided Design, SimBuild 2024 proceedings, Denver, CO, US, [online], https://tsapps.nist.gov/publication/get_pdf.cfm?pub_id=957010
(Accessed October 7, 2025)