PARTICULATE MATTER AND OZONE IN MEDIUM OFFICE BUILDINGS OF MEGAMILLION CITIES: SIMULATIONS USING CONTAM
Open Access
- Author:
- RAO, SHIYU
- Graduate Program:
- Architectural Engineering
- Degree:
- Master of Science
- Document Type:
- Master Thesis
- Date of Defense:
- May 31, 2016
- Committee Members:
- Donghyun Rim, Thesis Advisor/Co-Advisor
James Freihaut, Committee Member
William P Bahnfleth, Committee Member - Keywords:
- particulate matter
ozone
indoor air quality
ventilation
filtration
energy
office building - Abstract:
- Ambient particulate matter (PM) and ozone are critical to human health and well-being given their association with increased mortalities of the respiratory and cardiovascular system. For office buildings in the urban area, uses of economizer have been dramatically increased recently for purposes of achieving energy saving and ventilations. The goals of this paper are to explore transports of ambient ozone and PM2.5 into urban office buildings considering outdoor air pollution, weather, and ventilation operating modes as well as estimate energy consumption of ventilation and filtration. This study employs multi-zone contaminant transport model (CONTAM) for the prediction of outdoor-indoor pollutant dynamics in three cities: Los Angeles, Beijing, and London. The model simulates infiltration of ambient ozone and PM2.5 into a Department of Energy reference building (medium office) considering outdoor climate condition, ventilation rates, and filtration efficiencies. Seasonal variations are one of the possible reasons to capture the influences of high contaminants levels in LA and elevate particle concentrations in Beijing and London. The study results show that outdoor-indoor pollutant transport varies significantly according to the ambient concentration, outdoor weather, season, and ventilation conditions. The indoor concentrations of ozone and particles in three cities are often higher than US EPA and WHO standards, implying that buildings are a critical domain of air pollution control in the major cities for reduction of human exposure to ambient air pollutants. The results suggest that flow rate and filtration efficiencies have significant influences on particulate matter transport and indoor concentrations. Pressure drops in air filtration process and ventilation of building are two major energy consumers of HVAC system. Comparisons between representative cities provide insights into particle enter into building under various weather and operation scenarios and strategies to maintain good indoor air quality and reduce energy use in cities.