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

Keywords

Air quality in buildings, ventilation strategies, airflow distribution, human exposure

Learning Prerequisites

Required courses

None, but familiarity with building physics is recommended

Recommended courses

• Comfort and architecture: sustainable strategies (AR-442)
• Building energetics (ENG-445)
• Building physics I IV (AR PHYS)
• Air pollution and climate change (ENV-400)

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

Virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI)

No

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

• Awbi, H.B, Ventilation of buildings, E&FN SPON (2003)
• Hinds, W.C., Aerosol technology: Properties, behavior, and measurement of airborne particles, Wiley (1999)
• Spengler, J., McCarthy, J., and Samet, J. Indoor air quality handbook, McGraw-Hill Professional (2001).
• Etheridge, D., Sandberg, M.Building ventilation-Theory and Measurement, John Wiley & Sons (1996).
• Steinfeld, J.H. and Pandis, S.N., Atmospheric chemistry and physics: from air pollution to climate change, Wiley (2006)
• Morawska, L. and Salthammer, T., Indoor environment: airbone particles and settled dust Wiley-VCH (2003)

Moodle Link

• https://go.epfl.ch/CIVIL-460

Prerequisite for