Measurement of Air Infiltration Rates in Large Enclosures and Buildings

摘要

This report describes work carried out as a research contract funded by the U.K. Department of the Environment and the Commission of the European Communities. To develop a validated method of measuring air infiltration rates in large single cell industrial buildings and to use the method to measure ventilation rates in selected buildings. The first stage was to determine the effects poor mixing would have on a selected tracer gas technique in interpreting the results; the second stage was to review advances in instrumentation technology: infra-red gas analysers were chosen. Thus a measurement system using infra-red gas analysers in conjunction with micro-computer controlled gas sampling assemblies was constructed to measure nitrous oxide tracer gas concentrations in thirty different zones and to measure up to thirty air temperatures. A test building was selected and sealed up to validate the measurement technique. Thirty different tests were undertaken. On average the measured ventilation rate was within ten percent of the known ventilation rate, despite imperfect mixing. A validated measurement system has thus been established and if the results of measurements undertaken here are typical, then the potential for energy savings attributable to ventilation heat loss in industrial buildings are very significant indeed. (ERA citation 13:007571)