Multizone Modeling as an Indoor Air Quality Design Tool

Published

August 1, 2000

Author(s)

Amy Musser

Abstract

Increased public awareness and changing industry standards have highlighted the importance of indoor air quality in the building design process. At the same time, many owners would like to construct buildings that conserve energy and minimize environmental impact. To accomplish both of these goals, the designer must be able to understand airflow rates, pressure relationships, and contaminant transport in buildings. This paper describes the use of a multizone model to perform design calculations for a new building on a college campus in the United States. The building incorporates a number of environmentally progressive features, such as natural ventilation, energy recovery, a biological wastewater treatment process, and CO₂ demand controlled ventilation. The multizone modeling tool CONTAM is used to size an exhaust fan for source isolation, select minimum ventilation quantities to control building related contaminants, and specify procedures for flushing out contaminants prior to occupancy. The multizone model is also used to predict transient contaminant levels, taking into account weather and associated infiltration. The generalization of these design and analysis techniques to a wider range of indoor air quality design applications is also discussed.

Proceedings Title

Vol. 2: Design and Operation of HVAC Systems Healthy Buildings, Conference | 6th | | SIT Indoor Air Information

Volume

2

Conference Dates

August 6-10, 2000

Conference Location

Espoo, FI

Conference Title

Healthy Buildings Conference

Pub Type

Conferences

Download Paper

Local Download

Keywords

air quality, design, modeling, source control, VOC

Citation

Musser, A. (2000), Multizone Modeling as an Indoor Air Quality Design Tool, Vol. 2: Design and Operation of HVAC Systems Healthy Buildings, Conference | 6th | | SIT Indoor Air Information, Espoo, FI, [online], https://tsapps.nist.gov/publication/get_pdf.cfm?pub_id=860839 (Accessed April 25, 2024)