Implementing Volatile Organic Compounds In CONTAM For Assessment Purposes: A Review

Abstract

Today's common demand controlled ventilation systems lower the ventilation airflow rate based on real-time CO 2 and H 2 O measurements. Both ventilation system design and the Belgian assessment method for such systems, based on Monte-Carlo simulations, only consider these two comfort parameters. The health aspect of indoor air quality is thereby overlooked. A first step towards adding this aspect is the addition of Volatile Organic Compounds (VOC). As part of this research, eight different methods to model VOC emission and behavior in the airflow simulation software CONTAM are discussed: two methods to model event-based emissions, five methods to model continuous VOC emissions and one additional method to model sorption behavior. The overview illustrates the lack of an adequate, ready-to-use method that can be used to update the simulation based assessment method. Two methods (.CVF and TCP/IP) hold the potential to be used for this purpose but need to be further investigated.

Modelling VOC Emissions from Building Materials for Healthy Building Design

“…These results allow us to say that, despite the simplifications adopted in the CFD model, the obtained result highlights the usefulness of CFD in studying indoor air quality problems related to building materials as also highlighted in the literature [22,31,32,36].…”

“…The model was applied to office 11 and the meeting room in Block A of the building to compare the VOC concentrations obtained with the two modelling tools. The use of the numerical model, implemented in the CONTAM software, was also motivated by the aim of simulating and understanding the three-dimensional fluid dynamic field in the case studies and to highlight the fundamental role of air circulation in the phenomena of VOC transport and dispersion in indoor environments [31,32]. CONTAM is a freely distributed software, developed by NIST (National Institute of Standards and Technology), widely used for various applications including the study of ventilation in indoor environments and the determination of air quality through dispersion simulation and the occupant's exposure assessment to indoor pollutants.…”