Indoor air quality and ventilation

Summary

This course covers the fundamentals of indoor air quality and ventilation strategies for optimal building air quality. Through lectures, discussions, modeling software, a hands-on group project, students explore indoor air pollutants, their properties, emission sources, and control mechanisms.

Content

Learning Prerequisites

Important concepts to start the course

• Building physics
• Fluid dynamics
• HVAC systems
• Indoor environmental quality

Learning Outcomes

By the end of the course, the student must be able to:

• Integrate indoor air quality and ventilation requirements into the building design and operation lifecycle.
• Characterize sources of particle-phase, gas-phase and biological air pollutants in buildings and their impact on human health and well-being.
• Perform basic calculations related to aerosol and gas-phase distribution, and human exposure.
• Assess / Evaluate building air pollution control mechanisms and determine their effectiveness.
• Perform indoor air quality assessment through handling instrumentation and conducting measurements.
• Explore the fundamentals of indoor air quality and airflows modeling software CONTAM.
• Analyze air quality data and prepare oral presentation.

Transversal skills

• Plan and carry out activities in a way which makes optimal use of available time and other resources.
• Access and evaluate appropriate sources of information.
• Make an oral presentation.
• Demonstrate the capacity for critical thinking
• Take feedback (critique) and respond in an appropriate manner.
• Communicate effectively, being understood, including across different languages and cultures.

Teaching methods

This course consists of theory lectures and a group course project that includes hands-on measurements and computer simulations.

Expected student activities

To actively participate in lectures, class discussions, and group projects.

Assessment methods

• Written mid-term exam based on theory: 25%
• Written end-semester exam based on theory: 25%
• Course project and presentation: 50%

Supervision

Resources

Bibliography

Peer-reviewed papers and websites – it will be provided throughout the semester

• Spengler, J., McCarthy, J., and Samet, J. Indoor air quality handbook, McGraw-Hill Professional (2001)
• Ott, W., Steinemann, A. C., Wallace, L. A. Exposure Analysis, Taylor & Francis Group (2007)
• Hinds, W. C., Aerosol technology: Properties, behavior, and measurement of airborne particles, Wiley (1999)
• Seinfeld, J. H. and Pandis, S. N., Atmospheric chemistry and physics: from air pollution to climate change, Wiley (2006)
• Awbi, H. B, Ventilation of buildings, E&FN SPON, (2003)
• Etheridge, D., Sandberg, M. Building ventilation - Theory and Measurement, John Wiley & Sons (1996)

Ressources en bibliothèque

• Find the references at the Library

Moodle Link

• https://go.epfl.ch/CIVIL-460

Prerequisite for