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Cynthia H. Reed, Zhe Liu, Steve Cox, Andrew K. Persily, John Little
The business of measuring volatile organic compound (VOC) emissions from building products and materials has grown to include more than 100 laboratories, many with unique testing equipment and analytical techniques. For the purposes of labeling building
Building materials and products are a significant source of volatile organic compounds (VOC) in the indoor environment. Reducing VOC emissions can improve occupant health and productivity, and perhaps support lower building ventilation requirements and
To improve the reliability and accuracy of chamber tests for measuring emissions of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) from interior building products, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and Virginia Tech (VT) have created a prototype
Airborne ultrafine particles (UFP) have been associated with human mortality and morbidity. Human exposure to ambient UFP occurs indoors due to entry of UFP into buildings. This study investigates UFP infiltration as a function of building operating
Steven J. Emmerich, David Heinzerling, Jung-il Choi, Andrew K. Persily
Control of airborne infectious agents in hospitals is critical both to effective health care and to the control of direct and indirect health care costs. Current hospital design guidelines focus on ventilation rates, room pressure control and air
Wenjuan Wei, Cynthia H. Reed, Andrew K. Persily, Yinping Zhang
Formaldehyde is recognized as a harmful indoor air pollutant for human health (IARC. 2004) and is emitted from building materials, including urea-formaldehyde resin in pressed wood products. Environmental chambers are typically used to measure formaldehyde
Richard D. Peacock, Jason D. Averill, Erica D. Kuligowski
This paper provides an analysis of the evacuation of the World Trade Center towers culled from telephone and face-to-face interviews with survivors. A decedent analysis explores where occupants were located when each tower was attacked. Multiple regression
Erica D. Kuligowski, Richard D. Peacock, Jason D. Averill
This paper provides an analysis of the evacuation of the World Trade Center towers culled from telephone and face-to-face interviews with survivors. A decedent analysis explores where occupants were located when each tower was attacked. Multiple regression
In this experiment-aided simulation study, we achieved the performance improvement of a Roof Top Unit (RTU) by optimizing an evaporator's refrigerant circuitry using evolutionary algorithms. The system used in this study was a 2-stage 7.5 Ton RTU with an
WUI fires offer a unique challenge to the fire fighting and fire protection engineering communities. The scale of the events can be vast, spanning in many cases over 100,000 acres (40,000 ha) and the number of structures involved can range into the
The Blaine fineness (Blaine) of a cement powder is a single parameter that is meant to characterize the specific surface area of a cement, and is assumed to be linked to physical and mechanical properties such as strength, setting time, and rheology. As
Richard G. Gann, Anthony P. Hamins, Kevin B. McGrattan, Thomas J. Ohlemiller, Kuldeep R. Prasad, William M. Pitts, Harold E. Nelson
The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) conducted an extensive investigation of the collapse of the three tall World Trade Center (WTC) buildings. This paper describes the reconstruction of the fires, the thermal environment they created
Wanyu Chan, Francois R. Carrie, Jiri Novak, Andres Litvak, Fabrice Richieri, Oliver Solche, Wei Pan, Steven Emmerich
We collected information on existing envelope air leakage databases from countries that are involved in the AIVC-TightVent project "Development and applications of building air leakage databases". This document summarizes the information from five
Emil Simiu, Chris Letchford, Nicholas Isyumov, Arindam Chowdhury, DongHun Yeo
The purpose of this work is to present an assessment of methods for determining wind loads on buildings and other structures that warrant comment, correction or improvement. The assessment is intended to serve as a resource as a new version of the American
Methane is one of the major greenhouse gases and in recent years more efforts have been undertaken to estimate its emissions at local and regional scales utilizing new observing systems. During 2012, Earth Networks Inc. deployed a dense GHG observing
Kuldeep R. Prasad, Anthony Bova, James R. Whetstone, Elena Novakovskaia
Currently, inverse atmospheric dispersion models are being used around the world to provide measurement-based, or top- down, estimates of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions for comparison with input-based, or bottom-up, estimates. To minimize uncertainty
Thermal conductivity measurements at and near room temperature are presented as the basis for certified values of thermal conductivity of SRM 1453, Expanded Polystyrene Board. The measurements have been conducted in accordance with a randomized full
Mauro Zammarano, Szabolcs Matko, Roland H. Kraemer, Rick D. Davis, Jeffrey W. Gilman, Li Piin Sung, Douglas M. Fox, Shivani N. Mehta
Smoldering is a self-sustaining heterogeneous oxidation reaction that induces a slow, low temperature, flameless combustion. Flexible polyurethane foams (PUF) are prone to smoldering due to their high air permeability, low density and high specific surface
Dong H. Rim, Andrew K. Persily, Lance L. Wallace, William S. Dols, Steven J. Emmerich
Airborne particle transport into buildings is important for human exposure to particles and associated health effects. The present study investigated the entry of size-resolved outdoor ultrafine particles into a test building under three different
Douglas S. Thomas, David T. Butry, Jeffrey P. Prestemon
Societal safeguards, established by those who have shared perceptions in the importance of safety and taking preventative measures, reduce the incidence of accidents that harm people and damage property. These safeguards prevent or discourage community
Amy S. Rushing, Joshua D. Kneifel, Barbara C. Lippiatt
This is the 2012 edition of energy price indices and discount factors for performing life-cycle cost analyses of energy and water conservation and renewable energy projects in federal facilities. It will be effective from April 1, 2012 to March 31, 2013
Randall J. McDermott, Hyun Wook Park, Kiyoung Moon, Ezgi Oztekin, Changhoon Lee, Jung-il Choi
A well-known challenge for large eddy simulation (LES) is to provide a smooth transition from molecular to turbulent transport near the wall without having to explicitly resolve the viscous sublayer. We propose a simple but efficient approach based on
This paper presents a computational investigation of two reinforced concrete beam-column assemblies, each comprising three columns and two beams, subjected to monotonically increasing vertical displacement of the unsupported center column simulating a
Lisa C. Ng, Amy Musser, Andrew K. Persily, Steven J. Emmerich
Sixteen commercial reference buildings were created in the multizone airflow and contaminant transport program CONTAM in order to support airflow and indoor air quality (IAQ) analyses, which are not possible using the existing EnergyPlus input files for