Air quality and relative humidity in commercial aircrafts: An experimental investigation on short-haul domestic flights

Abstract

Nowadays the achievement of a comfortable environment in aircraft cabins is a factor of paramount importance in air travel business competition; on the other hand, the need of reducing the propulsion fuel cost has driven the airline companies to adopt air handling systems that may reduce the levels of thermal comfort and air quality inside the cabins of commercial airliners. With the aim of contributing to a better knowledge of this matter, this paper reports the results of an experimental study upon the indoor air quality aboard commercial aircrafts for 14 domestic flights less than 1 h and half long. The parameters monitored were temperature, relative humidity and carbon dioxide concentration; the measurements were performed during the whole flight from the takeoff to the landing. The relative humidity inside the cabin was also calculated using the rates of outside air and the carbon dioxide as a ventilation tracer; the theoretical results were compared with the measured data. The relationship between relative humidity and carbon dioxide concentration during fights was highlighted in order to define the environmental conditions that may provide acceptable levels of both the air quality and hygrometric comfort to the crew and passengers. The results of calculations confirmed the possibility of improving the hygrometric conditions in aircraft cabins without the need of using humidification systems.

Estimation of the contribution of secondary organic aerosol to PM2.0 concentration in aircraft cabins

“…where C R;t;CO2 (ppm) is the CO 2 concentration of re-circulated air at time t, C S;t;CO2 (ppm) is the CO 2 concentration of supply air at time t, Q t (Ls À1 ) is the total airflow rate per person at time t, N is the number of passengers, _ m (Lh À1 ) is the average CO 2 generation rate per person, which was set as 18.2 L/(h*person) [24,25], t is the test time.…”

Identifying and analyzing critical factors impacting on passenger comfort employing a hybrid model

“…Some studies discussed physical environment factors that affect passenger comfort, such as vibration (Šika, Valášek, Vampola, Füllekrug, & Klimmek, ), noise (Quehl, ), light (Winzen, Albers, & Marggraf‐Micheel, ), temperature and humidity (Giaconia, Orioli, & Di Gangi, ), and air quality (Winzen & Marggraf‐Micheel, ). Bubb () proposed a discomfort pyramid that prioritized the importance of different elements of the cabin environment.…”

Air conditioning systems for aeronautical applications: a review

“…Giaconia et al (53) conducted an experimental study on the indoor air quality of an Airbus A319 during 14 flights of 1.5h, monitoring the temperature, relative humidity and carbon dioxide concentration. The objective was to establish a correlation between carbon dioxide concentration and relative humidity with the aim of reducing the rate of outside air input to obtain better levels of relative humidity inside cabin.…”