A Characterization of time-dependent air infiltration rates in retail stores using calibrated multi-zone model

Abstract

The main goal of this article is to quantify the time-dependent air infiltration rates for two retail stores using a calibrated multi-zone model. The calibration focused on the automatic entrance doors as the flow element with significant infiltration rates. This study examined the application of a modified leakage airflow element for automatic entrance doors to predict physical conditions, including differential pressures and airflow rates across the doors. The results show that the simulation of differential pressures across the entrance doors was consistent with the measured data after the model used the corrected flow coefficient (C) based on an hourly rate of people passing through the doors. The airflow rates through the automatic entrance doors represented 75%–80% of the total air infiltration and accounted for 12%–19% of the total ventilation rates. Furthermore, installing a door vestibule decreased the infiltration airflow rates through the automatic entrance doors by approximately 23%. Overall, the present study proposes and validates a method based on the calibrated multi-zone model to quantify the time-dependent infiltration rates in retail buildings.