Particles emitted from the kitchen have been proven as one of the major indoor particulate pollutants which could pose serious risk on human health. Thus, it is critical to study the migration of kitchen particles and the impact of kitchen particles on non-kitchen zones. Since Chinese domestic kitchens are equipped with exhaust hoods, the capture efficiency of an exhaust hood in real residence was

Despite the existence of plentiful studies on how plants can positively affect human wellbeing, few have focused on the potential effects of flower colours on stressed people. The present study was designed to illustrate the psychophysiological relaxation impacts of seeing purple and blue hydrangea flowers among finance workers. Thirty employees were asked to view purple, blue flowers or an empty table

The global pandemic of Corona Virus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) necessitated the rapid construction of field hospitals as the main strategies to control the detrimental effects of the outbreak. Little is known about the extent of the environmental contamination of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) in an urgently field hospital. A total of 66 surface samples were randomly collected

Indirect evaporative cooling is a rapidly developing air-handling technology and has great application potentials for energy recovery in hot and humid regions. The condensation in dry channels of an indirect evaporative cooler (IEC) occurs when the dew point temperature of outdoor air is high. However, the dynamic heat transfer performance of an IEC during the process of condensation evolution was

In regions with a hot-summer/cold-winter climate, a balance between energy-saving and better daylighting performance is often required for the design of a glass roof system. This research aims to reduce the total energy demand and to increase the useful daylight illuminance (UDI), by introducing a response-surface-methodology-based bi-objective optimization approach for three glass roof system models

With the increasing density of built spaces in urban areas, the need for open spaces increases every day. Squares are one of the most important of these open spaces. Urban squares allow various activities and exhibit functional differences based on location and culture. The diversity of activities conducted in squares is extremely important for the quality and viability of liveable urban spaces. Urban

In this paper, the building environment and the thermal comfort of occupants were investigated at a university building located in severe cold climate zone in the northwest of China during winter, transition and summer. First, in the two typical weather days of the year, the thermal environment of the Shihezi University building with atrium and courtyard was measured on the spot to investigate the

Aerosol generated from a human cough can be a potential major indoor health risk due to the possible transmission of infectious respiratory diseases to surrounding individuals within the same room and even could spread out via air-ventilation/conditioning systems. This study aims to investigate the transport characteristics and trajectory of coughed aerosols under the influence of conditioned air ventilation

In subway stations, the piston effect plays an important role in enhancing ventilation to improve subway environment and reduce energy consumption. However, it may induce negative impacts on environmental health and thermal comfort, i.e. air pollution and strong wind. Traditionally, the architecture and ventilation systems are designed separately, and normal ventilation design follows architectural

Desiccant-based hybrid air-conditioning technologies are currently being developed to reduce energy consumption and enhance the effectiveness of indoor thermal environmental control in buildings. The purpose of this study is to propose a compact desiccant-based outdoor air-conditioning system that directly uses heated desorption and cooled adsorption with comparatively low-temperature energy, and to

Installed solar photovoltaic generation is expanding fast in western China, with total capacity accounting for >15% of global photovoltaic capacity. However, severe aerosol pollution over western China has weakened the solar radiation reaching the panels. We assessed the impact of aerosol pollution on photovoltaic power generation at the city level in western China from 2014 to 2018. Over northwestern

The main purpose of this study was to examine the influence of visible greenness rate, green coverage ratio and distance from plants on human perceptions and parameters of the physical environment. A secondary purpose was to explore the correlation between parameters of physical environment and human perceptions when indoor plants were present. A randomized controlled trial was conducted. Experimental

Window opening behaviour is one of the most important factors for indoor air environment. The traditional models for window opening behaviour rarely focus on the window opening proportion, which has an important effect on optimal design of natural ventilation. A hybrid model combining the logistic regression model with a probability distribution model was proposed to analyse the window state distribution

The effectiveness of the increase in passive ventilation was studied as remedial action for high concentrations of indoor radon gas activity. The rationale has been to apply the provisions of Directive 2013/59/EURATOM, partially implemented by a regional law of Puglia Region (Southern Italy). Residential buildings were selected based on characteristics common to those of commercial premises, which

People ubiquitously produce CO2. The quantitative relationship between the CO2 concentration and pedestrian flow needs to be determined if the CO2 concentration is to be used to reflect pedestrian flow. Therefore, a field test was carried out to measure the CO2 concentration and pedestrian flow in an evacuation passageway of a densely populated building. The results show that the variation in the CO2

The climate of Yangtze River Basin in China is cold and humid in winter. Conventional air-conditioning systems may cause high energy consumption and uncomfortable microclimatic conditions especially for lower body of indoor occupants. This study investigated four personalized seat heating systems, in a typical office room in Shanghai during winter, based on heated floor panels including heated floor

This study evaluates the feasibility of a control method, ‘the Technique for Order of Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution’ (TOPSIS) for the optimization of the subzone thermal environment by optimizing the oscillating airflow generated from a cassette split type air conditioner. To address the quasi-dynamic thermal comfort problems, various operation swinging angles of the louvre in the supply

This research aims to evaluate the relationship between the environmental and design parameters of the air conditioning system, and the presence of colony-forming units (CFUs) of bacteria on surfaces. This retrospective study was carried out in controlled environment rooms in 12 hospitals in Spain, as part of a periodic environmental biosecurity assessment programme. Between 2010 and 2017, a total

Particle inhalation is associated with adverse respiratory outcomes including death. Particle deposition in the respiratory tract and therefore the type and severity of health outcomes depend on size that varies by type and source. The size distribution of particle mass generated by indoor activities such as cooking, cleaning, visitors, smoking and candle/incense burning was monitored in this study

This study investigated the physiological thermal response of people under simulated weightlessness using a 6° head down bed rest (HDBR) model to ensure the human body functions in the weightlessness way. Thermal responses of six male participants were experimentally determined. The relationship between thermal comfort and heart rate variability (HRV) was also scrutinized. Physiological responses of

The built environment is how human beings express themselves spatially in the course of history. As one of the most important concepts of the built environment in the theory of human-land relationships, ‘place’ is formed by the combination of natural and human factors.1 While ‘place’ is defined as a space that is relevant, historical and related to identity, a space that does not have these characteristics

The formaldehyde (HCHO) and volatile organic compound (VOCs) pollution characteristics of the residential kitchen in severe cold regions of northeast China were investigated by on-site measurement, questionnaire and correlation analysis. A total of 33 residential kitchens in three cities were selected as samples. Gas chromatography–mass spectrometry, phenol reagent spectrophotometer and 2,4-dinitrophenylhydrazine

Fine dust is one of the important factors affecting precision instruments and human health, and the pleated filter media has been widely used in air filtration field. Based on the SEM image of the actual pleated filter media, a microscopic 3D model of the pleated filter media was established and the gas–solid two-phase flow was simulated using OpenFOAM. The results show that OpenFOAM can well simulate

Particle detachment induced by a rotating wheel was investigated theoretically and experimentally. The developed theoretical models were used to reveal how the particle detaches from a wheel surface to the surrounding air. The corresponding experiments were carried out to validate proposed models. Two groups of spherical particles were considered, i.e. silicon dioxide and aluminium oxide particles

The measurement of 222Rn and 220Rn concentrations in air was carried out in 50 dwellings belonging to 20 locations in and around Mandya city, Karnataka. Annual mean values of 222Rn and 220Rn concentrations were found to be 22.4 ± 1.5 and 24.1 ± 1.8 Bq m−3, respectively. The total annual effective dose received by the general public due to radon and thoron was found to be 1.36 ± 0.08 mSv y−1. The doses

The accurate identification of the characteristics of pollutant sources can effectively prevent the loss of human life and property damage caused by the sudden release of harmful chemicals in emergency situations. Machine learning algorithms, artificial neural network (ANN), support vector machine (SVM), k-nearest neighbour (KNN) and naive Bayesian (NB) classification can be used to identify the location

Aircraft cabin mockup has been accepted as a benchmark tool to study the aircraft cabin environment. Some researchers used computational fluid dynamics to predict the cabin environment, but the model always needs to be validated by accurate and comprehensive experimental data obtained from the cabin mockup. This study measured thermo-fluid boundary conditions, airflow and temperature distributions

For tropical seaside cities, the net advection heat flux plays a significant role in local urban heat island (UHI) formation during the nocturnal time. However, the net advection heat flux is usually neglected in conventional modelling methods. An improved urban canopy model (UCM) has been developed to simulate the UHI effect in the tropical seaside cities. The model was proposed by introducing an

The full use of renewable energy sources such as solar energy to meet the various energy supply needs of buildings is now a research focus and an industry development trend, as energy consumption has been increasing and environmental pollution has become a serious problem. In the high-cold and high-altitude area in western China, due to the abundant solar energy and hydropower resources, the use of

In this study, electret media were loaded with neutralized and charged potassium chloride (KCl) to examine the effect of charged solid particles on loading behaviour. The media were then loaded with diethylhexyl sebacate (DEHS), dipropylene glycol (DPG) and glycerol to obtain a correlation between the efficiency degradation and liquid aerosol. The results indicated that the efficiency of electret media

A liquid desiccant air dehumidifier (LDAD) with both high efficiency and low desiccant carryover is of vital significance to indoor environment. However, the instability introduced by desiccant film flow tends to deteriorate the droplets entrainment in product air and remains to be solved. In this study, a novel disk-type liquid desiccant air dehumidifier with no film flow (DLDAD) was developed to

A mixing ventilation system integrated with a ceiling cooling system is a potential advanced heating, ventilation and air conditioning system for modern office buildings with a high sensible cooling load. This paper presents an evaluation of the effect of sensible cooling load on the indoor air distribution in a typical office room with mixing ventilation and ceiling cooling. The vertical distributions

The traditional widely used Chinese Kang heating system has been gradually becoming obsolete, due to the coal or wood burning emission that causes poor indoor air quality. In the interest to preserve the rural life, this study evaluated the performance of a retrofitted traditional Kang heating system with the use of alternative clean energy in a rural-dwelling in Xi'an, China. An air source heat pump

The manual control of windows is one of the common adaptive behaviours for occupants to adjust their indoor environment in homes. The cross-ventilation by the window opening provides a useful tool to control the thermal comfort and indoor air quality in homes. The objective of this study was to develop a modelling methodology for predicting individual occupant's behaviour relating to the manual control

Background Bringing features of nature indoors can positively influence indicators of human stress. Since wood is a natural material, it may produce similar benefits. The objective of the review was to (1) examine the influence of visual (real or virtual) contact with either real or imitated indoor wooden surfaces on certain stress indicators, that is affective, physiological or cognitive performance

In this article, a comparative study on the outdoor air pollutant prevention and indoor thermal comfort for different types of ventilation was carried out. Both objective experiment, subjective experiment and computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulation were conducted to investigate the differences in air pollutant prevention and thermal comfort between four common ventilation methods, namely supplying

Volatile organic compounds, several of which may impact health, have many possible indoor sources. To further investigate this, we tested the association between indoor concentrations of 47 passively collected volatile organic compounds and both home characteristics and occupant behaviours in a Canadian population-based sample of 3454 participants. Homes with smokers were excluded from analysis. Homes

For large space buildings like industrial plants with huge heat generation, the role that surface-source plumes play becomes more crucial. To study the air distribution and movement of plumes, the first step is to quantify how the airflow gets distributed in chambers. The experiment was carried out in a thermostatic chamber where there was no ventilation. Four hundred flow field snapshots (in each

Refuge floors are fire safety requirements for tall buildings in many Asia-Oceania cities. However, there are concerns on the adequate provision of cross-ventilation and drencher system to openings on refuge floors. To review the existing situation, a survey of 44 building developments involving 51 blocks of both residential and non-residential tall buildings was conducted. A new fire safety parameter

A nearly zero energy building (NZEB) can achieve significant energy saving by reducing its air-conditioning load greatly. At the same time, an NZEB should also achieve a comfortable thermal environment. In this paper, a parallel-pipe type natural heat transfer air-conditioning terminal device is proposed and studied for use in NZEB. The terminal device is able to provide both heating and cooling (including

This study aims to assess the physicochemical characteristics of the particulate matter ≤10 µm (PM10) at both congested and non-congested areas of Lahore, the second-largest city of Pakistan. PM10 samples from 10 urban sites in Lahore were analysed for source apportionment. The techniques of scanning electron microscopy/energy dispersive spectrometry (SEM/EDX) and inductively coupled plasma-optical

Abstract Sand is one of the main materials used in the construction industry. Elevated concentrations of terrestrial radionuclides in sand may cause great harm to dwellers. Present study determines concentrations of terrestrial radionuclides in sand that is widely used as a raw material in the construction industry in Bangladesh, via conventional HPGe γ-ray spectrometry. The average activity concentrations

Abstract Light reflectance value (LRV) of indoor surfaces impacts on electricity consumption for lighting. For this reason, inner surface reflectance is one of the parameters required by building energy efficiency codes and standards. In countries with advanced building energy certification processes, the LRV of coatings and paints is given by manufacturers. However, at regional and local level, these

The well-known service quality measurement (SQM) models, Importance-Satisfaction (I-S) model and Improvement index (Ii) model, have been recently proved useful in the analysis of soundscape quality. By combining the concepts of soundscape and quality management, this paper proposes an improved SQM model for soundscape assessment in urban public open spaces. Instead of using the I-S model, the Preference-Satisfaction

Aircraft cabin thermal environment is a key issue on flight selection by passengers, especially for long-haul flights. Currently, there have been some studies on the passengers’ thermal comfort in civil aircraft cabins. However, information is still limited on the changes in passenger thermal expectation with flight time. In this study, an aircraft cabin mockup was built, and three experiments involving

Abstract Indoor air quality (IAQ) is a key factor that could affect the indoor environment and people's health. In this study, we report a comprehensive study on IAQ in 30 dwellings in the temperate zone in China. Thirty naturally ventilated dwellings were selected in the urban area of Kunming, which is the largest city in temperate zone in China. In four seasons, short-term measurement of formaldehyde

Abstract Exposure to radon is recognised as the second-leading cause of lung cancer after tobacco smoke. The passive measurements typically take up to three months to be representative of the annual radon concentration. A recently developed approach depressurises a dwelling to heighten the convective radon flux determining radon entry rate coefficients. The current study characterises the ventilation

Organic solvents frequently lead to substantial occupational health issues in secondary industries. This study examined the xylene diffusion process in painting workshops as a case study to develop a control of indoor air quality in manufacturing workshops. Three-dimensional simulations of xylene emission were built based on a ventilated chamber test to provide the source term for the mathematical

This study combined on-site measurement and model simulation to characterize the spatial distribution of indoor particulate matter (PM) in a single room with stratified flow fields. The concentration of PM spatially distributed in a single room with natural ventilation was measured at different heights for different PM sizes. This study revealed that the PM concentration varied with height and time

This Special Issue contains 12 papers focusing on current up-to-date research into different perspectives and technologies of ventilation. These are expanded versions of selected papers presented at the 14th International Conference on ROOMVENTILATION 2018 that was held at Aalto University in Finland on 2 to 5 July 2018. This conference merged together SCANVAC’s RoomVent conference with Ventilation

An environmental chamber was built up and characterized at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University. The chamber consists of a 6 m3 poly tetrafluoroethylene-co-perfluoropropyl vinyl ether Teflon film reactor inside a stainless-steel enclosure stocked with a series of online gas-phase and aerosol-phase analytical instruments. Temperature and relative humidity are controllable and can be set to a range of

A new experimental methodology is presented to show the effect of water supply temperature, mass flow rate and thermal load distribution on the radiant ceiling capacity and thermal comfort conditions. Computerized fluid dynamics simulated vertical temperatures and velocities profiles were validated by a comparison with experimental results and the difference was within 10%. Uniform surface temperature

In this study, the performance of a micro-environment system was analysed and compared with diffused ceiling ventilation. In the analysed micro-environment low velocity radiant panel system, two low velocity units and radiant panels were installed above workstations to supply directly clean air to occupants and to cover the cooling power required. With diffused ceiling ventilation, all cooling demand

Due to the modernization and advancement in the society, the improvement of people’s living standard and the creation of comfortable and healthy indoor thermal environment has been a global concern for architects and building scientists.1 The ventilation system, which supplies air to meet the hygiene and thermal requirement of indoor occupants as well as to remove indoor pollutants, plays an important

Human-centred thermal environment conditioning can guarantee thermal comfort needs of human occupants in their micro-environments by using localized heating/cooling devices. Meanwhile, less intensified thermal conditioning of unoccupied surrounding environments can achieve heating/cooling energy efficiency. The concept was originated from task/ambient conditioning, which was developed for personal

Nowadays, people spend most of their times indoors; accordingly, plants are increasingly used in these environments, including residential areas, due to their psychological benefits and aesthetic values. However, there is little evidence on how to maximize the inhabitants' indoor greenery (IG) preferences. The present study analysed the preferences of 363 inhabitants of two residential complexes with

The influence of occupants'’ movements should be considered when analysing local thermal comfort. This study presents the effect of human movement on airflow characteristics and local thermal conditions with diffuse ceiling ventilation by experimental studies. A simulated person moving was used to study the human movement in an office. In these experiments, three moving speeds were studied: 0.3, 0

Liquid desiccant dehumidifiers (LDDs) can be improved by adding internal cooling. However, the addition of excessive cooling power may deteriorate the system‘s cost-efficiency, whereas the addition of insufficient cooling power leads to negligible performance improvements. The objective of this study is to determine the suitable cost-efficient cooling power range for improving the performance of internally

The study aimed to assess the effect of indoor air temperature on cognitive work performance of acclimatized people during the middle of heating season in severely cold region in China. How does temperature affect work performance was also investigated through subjective surveys. Eighteen acclimatized and healthy participants (10 males and 8 females) carried out tasks in a climate chamber under six

Human activities have been proven to be one of the most important sources of indoor volatile organic compound (VOC) emissions, especially in densely occupied environments. However, characterization of temporal variation and its impact analysis of indoor total volatile organic compounds (TVOC) have not been presented adequately. In this study, indoor concentrations and temporal variation of TVOC concentrations