A new scale for representing the level of reaction in indoor air as affected by ventilation and source

Abstract

According to the mechanism of indoor gas phase chemical reactions and the indoor air quality model, a new scale—the second factor of outdoor air effect—was developed for predicting the influence of ventilation on the reactions. Accumulating efficiency of reaction products and reacting efficiency of reactants were contained in this new scale; the former may quantify the exposing level of secondary contaminants (reaction products), and the latter may quantify the indoor chemical reaction extent. The new scale was an effective correlation among ventilation conditions, indoor chemical reaction conditions, the concentration distribution, and the residence time of reactants and reaction products. With the aid of the new scale and the computational fluid dynamics method, the influences of four critical factors on indoor gas phase chemical reactions were discussed for the bimolecular reaction, including indoor airflow pattern, outdoor airflow and outdoor air quality for ventilation, and source intensity of reactant.

Acknowledgments

This research has been supported by the National Science Foundation of China (grant 50908163) and the State Key Laboratory of Pollution Control and Resource Reuse Foundation of China (grant PCRRF09010).

Jun Wang is PhD student. Xu Zhang, PhD, is Professor.