Sub-additivity in combining infiltration with mechanical ventilation for single zone buildings
Abstract
We report that in determining ventilation rates, it is often necessary to combine naturally-driven infiltration, with air flows from mechanical systems. When there are balanced mechanical systems, the solution is simple additivity, because a balanced system does not impact the internal pressure of the space or the air flows through the building envelope. Unbalanced systems, however, change internal pressures and therefore can impact natural ventilation non-linearly in such a way as to make it sub-additive. Several sub-additive approaches are found in the literature, but they are not robust across the full spectrum from tight to leaky buildings and ranges of mechanical ventilation air flow rates. There are two approaches for combining natural infiltration with mechanical ventilation that require different solutions. The forward problem is to find the total air flow when adding mechanical ventilation to natural infiltration, and this application has been investigated in previous studies. The inverse problem finds the required mechanical ventilation in order to meet a total ventilation rate given a known amount of natural infiltration. This article presents the results of millions of hours of simulations of the physically correct solution, which span a broad range of climates, air leakage and structural conditions. This large datasetmore »
- Authors:
-
- Université Savoie Mont Blanc (France)
- Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)
- Publication Date:
- Research Org.:
- Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)
- Sponsoring Org.:
- USDOE Office of Science (SC)
- OSTI Identifier:
- 1532181
- Grant/Contract Number:
- AC02-05CH11231
- Resource Type:
- Journal Article: Accepted Manuscript
- Journal Name:
- Building and Environment
- Additional Journal Information:
- Journal Volume: 98; Journal Issue: C; Journal ID: ISSN 0360-1323
- Publisher:
- Elsevier
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
- Subject:
- 42 ENGINEERING; Unbalanced ventilation; Infiltration; Standards; Empirical models; Superposition
Citation Formats
Hurel, Nolwenn, Sherman, Max H., and Walker, Iain S. Sub-additivity in combining infiltration with mechanical ventilation for single zone buildings. United States: N. p., 2015.
Web. doi:10.1016/j.buildenv.2015.12.020.
Hurel, Nolwenn, Sherman, Max H., & Walker, Iain S. Sub-additivity in combining infiltration with mechanical ventilation for single zone buildings. United States. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.buildenv.2015.12.020
Hurel, Nolwenn, Sherman, Max H., and Walker, Iain S. 2015.
"Sub-additivity in combining infiltration with mechanical ventilation for single zone buildings". United States. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.buildenv.2015.12.020. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1532181.
@article{osti_1532181,
title = {Sub-additivity in combining infiltration with mechanical ventilation for single zone buildings},
author = {Hurel, Nolwenn and Sherman, Max H. and Walker, Iain S.},
abstractNote = {We report that in determining ventilation rates, it is often necessary to combine naturally-driven infiltration, with air flows from mechanical systems. When there are balanced mechanical systems, the solution is simple additivity, because a balanced system does not impact the internal pressure of the space or the air flows through the building envelope. Unbalanced systems, however, change internal pressures and therefore can impact natural ventilation non-linearly in such a way as to make it sub-additive. Several sub-additive approaches are found in the literature, but they are not robust across the full spectrum from tight to leaky buildings and ranges of mechanical ventilation air flow rates. There are two approaches for combining natural infiltration with mechanical ventilation that require different solutions. The forward problem is to find the total air flow when adding mechanical ventilation to natural infiltration, and this application has been investigated in previous studies. The inverse problem finds the required mechanical ventilation in order to meet a total ventilation rate given a known amount of natural infiltration. This article presents the results of millions of hours of simulations of the physically correct solution, which span a broad range of climates, air leakage and structural conditions. This large dataset allows for the comparison with three literature models and the development of new robust sub-additivity models. These improved models are for use with unbalanced systems appropriate for consensus standards and guidelines for both the forward and inverse problem. Finally, they reduce errors to 1% or less and work across the air tightness spectrum.},
doi = {10.1016/j.buildenv.2015.12.020},
url = {https://www.osti.gov/biblio/1532181},
journal = {Building and Environment},
issn = {0360-1323},
number = C,
volume = 98,
place = {United States},
year = {Wed Dec 30 00:00:00 EST 2015},
month = {Wed Dec 30 00:00:00 EST 2015}
}
Web of Science
Works referenced in this record:
Ventilation in European dwellings: A review
journal, January 2012
- Dimitroulopoulou, C.
- Building and Environment, Vol. 47
A comparison of the power law to quadratic formulations for air infiltration calculations
journal, June 1998
- Walker, Iain S.; Wilson, David J.; Sherman, Max H.
- Energy and Buildings, Vol. 27, Issue 3
Superposition in Infiltration Modeling
journal, June 1992
- Sherman, Max H.
- Indoor Air, Vol. 2, Issue 2
Natural and mechanical ventilation rates in a detached house: Measurements
journal, March 1981
- Etheridge, D. W.; Martin, L.; Gale, R.
- Applied Energy, Vol. 8, Issue 1
Characterizing the performance of residential air distribution systems
journal, January 1993
- Modera, Mark
- Energy and Buildings, Vol. 20, Issue 1
Simulation of the effects of duct leakage and heat transfer on residential space-cooling energy use
journal, January 1993
- Parker, Danny; Fairey, Philip; Gu, Lixing
- Energy and Buildings, Vol. 20, Issue 2
Optimization of design flow rates and component sizing for residential ventilation
journal, July 2013
- Laverge, J.; Janssens, A.
- Building and Environment, Vol. 65
Relating actual and effective ventilation in determining indoor air quality
journal, January 1986
- Sherman, M. H.; Wilson, D. J.
- Building and Environment, Vol. 21, Issue 3-4
Meeting residential ventilation standards through dynamic control of ventilation systems
journal, August 2011
- Sherman, Max H.; Walker, Iain S.
- Energy and Buildings, Vol. 43, Issue 8
Using a ventilation controller to optimise residential passive ventilation for energy and indoor air quality
journal, December 2013
- Turner, William J. N.; Walker, Iain S.
- Building and Environment, Vol. 70
Works referencing / citing this record:
US residential building air exchange rates: new perspectives to improve decision making at vapor intrusion sites
journal, January 2017
- Reichman, Rivka; Shirazi, Elham; Colliver, Donald G.
- Environ. Sci.: Processes Impacts, Vol. 19, Issue 2
A Novel Method for Determining Infiltration of Mechanically Ventilated Buildings
journal, June 2019
- Kulmala, Ilpo; Parviainen, Heikki; Hall, Ian
- Science and Technology for the Built Environment, Vol. 26, Issue 2