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1.
Neural Netw ; 169: 181-190, 2024 Jan.
Artículo en Inglés | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-37890367

RESUMEN

In this paper, we propose an event-triggered collaborative neurodynamic approach to distributed global optimization in the presence of nonconvexity. We design a projection neural network group consisting of multiple projection neural networks coupled via a communication network. We prove the convergence of the projection neural network group to Karush-Kuhn-Tucker points of a given global optimization problem. To reduce communication bandwidth consumption, we adopt an event-triggered mechanism to liaise with other neural networks in the group with the Zeno behavior being precluded. We employ multiple projection neural network groups for scattered searches and re-initialize their states using a meta-heuristic rule in the collaborative neurodynamic optimization framework. In addition, we apply the collaborative neurodynamic approach for distributed optimal chiller loading in a heating, ventilation, and air conditioning system.


Asunto(s)
Heurística , Redes Neurales de la Computación
2.
Sensors (Basel) ; 23(15)2023 Jul 27.
Artículo en Inglés | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-37571501

RESUMEN

Optimizing the performance of heating, ventilation, and air-conditioning (HVAC) systems is critical in today's energy-conscious world. Fan coil units (FCUs) play a critical role in providing comfort in various environments as an important component of HVAC systems. However, FCUs often experience failures that affect their efficiency and increase their energy consumption. In this context, deep learning (DL)-based fault detection offers a promising solution. By detecting faults early and preventing system failures, the efficiency of FCUs can be improved. This paper explores DL models as fault detectors for FCUs to enable smarter and more energy-efficient hotel buildings. We tested three contemporary DL modeling approaches: convolutional neural network (CNN), long short-term memory network (LSTM), and a combination of CNN and gated recurrent unit (GRU). The random forest model (RF) was additionally developed as a baseline benchmark. The fault detectors were tested on a real-world dataset obtained from the sensory measurement system installed in a hotel and additionally supplemented with simulated data via a physical model developed in TRNSYS. Three representative FCU faults, namely, a stuck valve, a reduction in airflow, and an FCU outage, were simulated with a much larger dataset than is typically utilized in similar studies. The results showed that the hybrid model, integrating CNN and GRU, performed best for all three observed faults. DL-based fault detectors outperformed the baseline RF model, confirming these solutions as viable components for energy-efficient hotels.

3.
Sensors (Basel) ; 23(14)2023 Jul 13.
Artículo en Inglés | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-37514675

RESUMEN

The energy consumption of a heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) system represents a large amount of the total for a commercial or civic building. In order to optimize the system performance and to increase the comfort of people living or working in a building, it is necessary to monitor the relevant parameters of the circulating air flux. To this end, an array of sensors (i.e., temperature, humidity, and CO2 percentage sensors) is usually deployed along the aeraulic ducts and/or in various rooms. Generally, these sensors are powered by wires or batteries, but both methods have some drawbacks. In this paper, a possible solution to these drawbacks is proposed. It presents a wireless sensor node powered by an Energy Harvesting (EH) device acted on by the air flux itself. The collected data are transmitted to a central unit via a LoRa radio channel. The EH device can be placed in air ducts or close to air outlets.

4.
Renew Sustain Energy Rev ; 182: 113356, 2023 Aug.
Artículo en Inglés | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-37220488

RESUMEN

New COVID-19 ventilation guidelines have resulted in higher energy consumption to maintain indoor air quality (IAQ), and energy efficiency has become a secondary concern. Despite the significance of the studies conducted on COVID-19 ventilation requirements, a comprehensive investigation of the associated energy challenges has not been discussed. This study aims to present a critical systematic review of the Coronavirus viral spreading risk mitigation through ventilation systems (VS) and its relation to energy use. COVID-19 heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC)-related countermeasures proposed by industry professionals have been reviewed and their influence on operating VS and energy consumption have also been discussed. A critical review analysis was then conducted on publications from 2020 to 2022. Four research questions (RQs) have been selected for this review concerning i) maturity of the existing literature, ii) building types and occupancy profile, iii) ventilation types and effective control strategies and iv) challenges and related causes. The results reveal that employing HVAC auxiliary equipment is mostly effective and increased fresh air supply is the most significant challenge associated with increased energy consumption due to maintaining IAQ. Future studies should focus on novel approaches toward solving the apparently conflicting objectives of minimizing energy consumption and maximizing IAQ. Also, effective ventilation control strategies should be assessed in various buildings with different occupancy densities. The implications of this study can be useful for future development of this topic not only to enhance the energy efficiency of the VS but also to enable more resiliency and health in buildings.

5.
Environ Res ; 213: 113665, 2022 10.
Artículo en Inglés | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-35714690

RESUMEN

More than 320 million people worldwide were affected by SARS-CoV-2 or COVID-19, which already caused more than 5.5 million deaths. COVID-19 spreads through air when an infected person breathes, coughs, or sneezes out droplets containing virus. Emerging variants like Omicron with positivity rate of 16 (highest among others) present a greater risk of virus spread, so all types of indoor environments become critically important. Strategically adopted Heating Ventilation and Air Conditioning (HVAC) approach can significantly reduce the virus spread by early removal of contaminated aerosolized droplets. We modeled different HVAC configurations to characterize the diffusion of contaminated droplets cloud through Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) simulations of sneeze in standard hospital room as indoor scenario. Injection of saliva droplets with characteristics of exhaled air from lungs was applied to mimic real sneeze. CFD simulations have been performed for three HVAC configurations at two Air Change per Hour (ACH) rates; 6 and 15 ACH. For the first time, use of air curtain at low flow rate has been examined. Simulations provide high fidelity spatial and temporal droplets cloud diffusion under different HVAC configurations, showing spread in room indoor environment up to 360 s. Over 92% of ejected sneeze mass is removed from room air within seconds while the remaining 8% or less becomes airborne with droplets (<50 µm size) and tends to spread uniformly with regular HVAC configuration. Low-speed air curtain accelerates decontamination by efficiently removing aerosolized 1-50 µm size droplets. Study investigates role of droplets removal mechanisms such as escape, evaporation, and deposition on surfaces. Interestingly, results show presence of contaminated droplets even after 5 min of sneeze, which can be effectively removed using low-speed air curtain. Study finds that high ventilation rate requirements can be optimized to modify earlier and new hospital designs to reduce the spread of airborne disease.


Asunto(s)
Contaminación del Aire Interior , COVID-19 , Contaminación del Aire Interior/prevención & control , Descontaminación , Humanos , SARS-CoV-2 , Estornudo
6.
Artículo en Inglés | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-35055838

RESUMEN

Increasing demand on heating, ventilation, and air-conditioning (HVAC) systems and their importance, as the respiratory system of buildings, in developing and spreading various microbial contaminations and diseases with their huge global energy consumption share have forced researchers, industries, and policymakers to focus on improving the sustainability of HVAC systems. Understanding and considering various parameters related to the sustainability of new and existing HVAC systems as the respiratory system of buildings are vital to providing healthy, energy-efficient, and economical options for various building types. However, the greatest opportunities for improving the sustainability of HVAC systems exist at the design stage of new facilities and the retrofitting of existing equipment. Considering the high available percentage of existing HVAC systems globally reveals the importance of their retrofitting. The attempt has been made to gather all important parameters that affect decision-making to select the optimum HVAC system development considerations among the various opportunities that are available for sustainability improvement.


Asunto(s)
Contaminación del Aire Interior , Calefacción , Aire Acondicionado , Ventilación
7.
Rev. ABENO ; 22(2): 1879, jan. 2022. tab
Artículo en Inglés | BBO - Odontología | ID: biblio-1396741

RESUMEN

COVID-19 outbreackhas reaffirmed the need to maintain ventilation of dental environments properly. This study was carried out to encourage a reflective analysis of the risks of air contamination in Brazilian dental clinics. A narrative review of the literature was carried out on the recommendations of heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) systems in dental environments, considering the risks of air contamination in Brazilian dental teaching clinics. The literature research was conductedin the PubMedand Google Scholar databases and the main studiesthat evaluated the climatization systems and portable high efficiency particulate air filtration (HEPA)units in dental environments were included. Furthermore, it were analyzed the guidelines of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Brazilian National Health Surveillance Agency, the Brazilian Ministry of Health and important institutions of the different countries. After the initial research, a review of the guidelines and articles that assess the use of HEPA units to improve air cleanliness. This analysis was done by different groups of researchers. All documents mentioned that the air quality of the dental offices must follow the protocols in current legislation to ensure the safety of the environs. Theyreaffirmed that the COVID-19 pandemic makes it imperative that dental environments equipped with air conditioning have mechanical air renewal devices. An alternative for Brazilian dental teaching clinics equipped with mini-splits or window air conditioning could be the installation of exhaust fans and portable HEPA filter units to exchange air and reduce aerosols inside the environments (AU).


O surto de COVID-19 reafirmou a necessidade de manter adequadamente a ventilação dos ambientes odontológicos. Este estudo foi realizado para incentivar uma análise reflexiva sobre os riscos de contaminação do ar em clínicas de odontologia. Foi realizada uma revisão narrativa da literatura sobre as recomendações dos sistemas de aquecimento,ventilação e ar-condicionado (AVAC) em ambientes odontológicos, considerando os riscos de contaminação do ar nas clínicas de ensino odontológico brasileiras. A pesquisa bibliográfica foi realizada nas bases de dados PubMed e Google Acadêmico e foram incluídos os principais estudos que avaliaram os sistemas de climatização e unidades portáteis com filtragem de partículas de alta eficiência(HEPA)em ambientes odontológicos. Além disso, foram analisadas as diretrizes do Centro de Controle e Prevenção de Doenças, da Agência Nacional de Vigilância Sanitária, do Ministério da Saúde e de importantes instituições de diferentes países. Após a pesquisa inicial, foi realizada uma revisão das diretrizes e dos artigos que avaliaram o uso de unidades HEPA para melhorar a limpeza do ar. Essa análise foi feita por diferentes grupos de pesquisadores. Todos os documentos mencionaram que a qualidade do ar dos consultórios odontológicos deve seguir os protocolos da legislação vigente para garantir a segurança dos ambientes. Eles reafirmam que a pandemia da COVID-19 torna imprescindível que os ambientes odontológicos, equipados com ar-condicionado, tenham dispositivos mecânicos de renovação de ar. Uma alternativa para as clínicas de ensino odontológicas brasileiras equipadas comminisplitsou ar-condicionado de janela poderia ser a instalação de exaustores e unidades portáteis de filtro HEPA para fazer as trocas de ar e reduzir os aerossóis no interior dos ambientes (AU).


Asunto(s)
Medidas de Seguridad/ética , Ventilación , Control de la Calidad del Aire , Clínicas Odontológicas/normas , Aire Acondicionado , COVID-19/transmisión , Brasil/epidemiología , Investigación Cualitativa , Educación en Odontología
8.
Sensors (Basel) ; 23(1)2022 Dec 20.
Artículo en Inglés | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-36616600

RESUMEN

Heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) systems are a popular research topic because buildings' energy is mostly used for heating and/or cooling. These systems heavily rely on sensory measurements and typically make an integral part of the smart building concept. As such, they require the implementation of fault detection and diagnosis (FDD) methodologies, which should assist users in maintaining comfort while consuming minimal energy. Despite the fact that FDD approaches are a well-researched subject, not just for improving the operation of HVAC systems but also for a wider range of systems in industrial processes, there is a lack of application in commercial buildings due to their complexity and low transferability. The aim of this review paper is to present and systematize cutting-edge FDD methodologies, encompassing approaches and special techniques that can be applied in HVAC systems, as well as to provide best-practice heuristics for researchers and solution developers in this domain. While the literature analysis targets the FDD perspective, the main focus is put on the data-driven approach, which covers commonly used models and data pre-processing techniques in the field. Data-driven techniques and FDD solutions based on them, which are most commonly used in recent HVAC research, form the backbone of our study, while alternative FDD approaches are also presented and classified to properly contextualize and round out the review.


Asunto(s)
Contaminación del Aire Interior , Calefacción , Contaminación del Aire Interior/análisis , Ventilación , Aire Acondicionado
9.
Environ Res ; 199: 111329, 2021 08.
Artículo en Inglés | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-34004171

RESUMEN

As the world continues to grapple with the reality of coronavirus disease, global research communities are racing to develop practical solutions to adjust to the new challenges. One such challenge is the control of indoor air quality in the COVID-19 era and beyond. Since COVID-19 became a global pandemic, the "super spread" of the virus has continued to amaze policymakers despite measures put in place by public health officials to sensitize the general public on the need for social distancing, personal hygiene, etc. In this work, we have reviewed the literature to demonstrate, by investigating the historical and present circumstances, that indoor spread of infectious diseases may be assisted by the conditions of the HVAC systems. While little consideration has been given to the possibility of indoor airborne transmission of the virus, the available reports have demonstrated that the virus, with average aerodynamic diameter up to 80-120 nm, is viable as aerosol in indoor atmosphere for more than 3 h, and its spread may be assisted by the HVAC systems. Having reviewed the vulnerability of the conventional ventilation systems, we recommend innovative air circulation concept supported by the use of UVGI in combination with nanoporous air filter to combat the spread of SARS-CoV-2 and other harmful microbes in enclosed spaces.


Asunto(s)
Contaminación del Aire Interior , COVID-19 , Enfermedades Transmisibles , Aerosoles , Humanos , Pandemias , SARS-CoV-2 , Ventilación
10.
Environ Monit Assess ; 193(1): 47, 2021 Jan 07.
Artículo en Inglés | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-33415530

RESUMEN

The installation of HVAC systems in building is meant to enhance indoor air quality as well as increase comfort to occupants. However, HVAC systems have also become a vehicle of contamination of indoor air with potentially pathogenic microorganisms. DNA was extracted from ten HVAC filter dust samples collected from two buildings and subjected to high throughput sequencing analysis to determine the bacterial community structure. Further, the Phylogenetic Investigation of Communities by Reconstruction of Unobserved States (PICRUSt2) software was used to predict the potential functional capabilities of the bacterial communities. Sequencing analysis led to the identification of five major bacterial phyla, including Proteobacteria, Cyanobacteria, Actinobacteria, Firmicutes and Bacteroidetes. At genus level, Mycobacterium, Bacillus, Cupriavidus, Hyphomicrobium and Mesorhizobium were the most dominant. With the exception of the later two bacterial genera, the first three are potential pathogens whose presence in HVAC systems poses a significant public health risk, especially among immunocompromised individuals. Nine pathways associated with antibiotics resistance and bacterial pathogenicity were identified, including polymyxin resistance and peptidoglycan biosynthesis pathways. Further, investigation of the relationship between the detected bacterial meta-communities and predicted potential virulence factors (antibiotic resistance and pathogenic genes) led to the detection of 350 positive associations among 43 core bacteria, 2 pathogenic genes (sitA and uidA) and 14 resistance genes. Overall, the heterogeneous nature of microorganisms found in HVAC systems observed in this study shows that HVAC systems are the origin of airborne infections in indoor environments, and must be periodically cleaned and disinfected to avoid the build-up of pathogens, and the subsequent exposure of human occupants of these pathogens.


Asunto(s)
Contaminación del Aire Interior , Aire Acondicionado , Microbiología del Aire , Contaminación del Aire Interior/análisis , Bacterias/genética , Monitoreo del Ambiente , Humanos , Filogenia , Salud Pública , Universidades , Ventilación
11.
Indoor Air ; 31(2): 502-523, 2021 03.
Artículo en Inglés | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-32931080

RESUMEN

Bioaerosol concentrations in residential buildings located in the Northeastern US have not been widely studied. Here, in 2011-2015, we studied the presence and seasonal variability of culturable fungi and bacteria in three multi-family apartment buildings and correlated the bioaerosol concentrations with building ventilation system types and environmental parameters. A total of 409 indoor and 86 outdoor samples were taken. Eighty-five percent of investigated apartments had indoor-outdoor (I/O) ratios of culturable fungi below 1, suggesting minimal indoor sources of fungi. In contrast, 56% of the apartments had I/O ratios for culturable bacteria above 1, indicating the prominence of indoor sources of bacteria. Culturable fungi I/O ratios in apartments serviced by central heating, ventilation, and air-conditioning (HVAC) system were lower than those in apartments with window AC. The type of ventilation system did not have a significant effect on the presence of indoor culturable bacteria. A significant positive association was determined between indoor dew point (DP) levels and indoor culturable fungi (P < .001) and bacteria (P < .001), regardless of ventilation type. Also, residents in apartments with central HVAC did not experience extreme DP values. We conclude that building ventilation systems, seasonality, and indoor sources are major factors affecting indoor bioaerosol levels in residential buildings.


Asunto(s)
Microbiología del Aire , Contaminación del Aire Interior , Monitoreo del Ambiente , Aire Acondicionado , Filtros de Aire , Bacterias , Hongos , Calefacción , Vivienda , Humanos , Material Particulado , Estaciones del Año , Ventilación
12.
Energy Build ; 230: 110533, 2021 Jan 01.
Artículo en Inglés | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-33052169

RESUMEN

The proposed investigation is aimed at providing useful suggestions and guidelines for the renovation of educational buildings, in order to do University classrooms safe and sustainable indoor places, with respect to the 2020 SARS-CoV-2 global pandemic. Classrooms and common spaces have to be thought again, for a new "in-presence" life, after the recent worldwide emergency following the spring 2020 pandemic diffusion of COVID-19. In this paper, starting from a real case study, and thus the architectural and technological refurbishment of an Italian University building (Campobasso, South Italy, cold climate), with the aims of improving the classrooms' quality and safety, a comprehensive approach for the retrofit design is proposed. By taking into account the necessary come back to classrooms starting, hopefully, from the next months (Autumn 2020), experimental studies (monitoring and investigations of the current energy performances) are followed by the coupling of different numerical methods of investigations, and thus building performance simulations, under transient conditions of heat transfer, and computational fluid dynamics studies, to evidence criticalities and potentialities to designers involved in the re-thinking of indoor spaces hosting multiple persons, with quite high occupancy patterns. Both energy impacts, in terms of monthly and annual increase of energy demands due to higher mechanical ventilation, and indoor distribution of microclimatic parameters (i.e., temperature, airspeed, age of air) are here investigated, by proposing new scenarios and evidencing the usefulness of HVAC systems, equipment (e.g., sensible heat recovery, without flows' contamination) and suitability of some strategies for the air distribution systems (ceiling squared and linear slot diffusers) compared to traditional ones.

13.
Drug Dev Ind Pharm ; 47(10): 1643-1655, 2021 Oct.
Artículo en Inglés | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-35232324

RESUMEN

The objective of this experimental study is to analyze non-viable and viable particle loads in a pharmaceutical cleanroom under 'in operation' conditions using different air change rates (ACRs). Regulatory guidelines give limit values for particles/m3 and colony forming units (CFUs)/m3. A widely used ACR is 20 h-1 as this value is recommended by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in its guidance for industry on sterile drug products. However, this value may be too high, resulting in increased costs for energy. A typical pharmaceutical cleanroom was used for this study, and operations were simulated with a process unit and two operators in the room. The experiments were conducted twice with four different ACRs and four different types of operator garments, resulting in 32 trials in total. Particle load and CFUs were measured by calibrated particle counters and microbial air samplers. The results give evidence that an ACR of 20 h-1 is not required. ACR 10 h-1 is sufficient without compromising the demanded air quality. Furthermore, it was found that regulatory agencies should reevaluate the expected limits as these currently give a high buffer between the required and actual values, which potentially cover up problems in aseptic manufacturing.


Asunto(s)
Ambiente Controlado , Preparaciones Farmacéuticas , Estados Unidos , United States Food and Drug Administration
14.
HERD ; 14(2): 328-336, 2021 04.
Artículo en Inglés | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-33353423

RESUMEN

There are risk factors related to architecture and designing labeled as "structural risk factors," causing hospital-acquired infections (HAIs) which are less highlighted in the literature. Through this communication, we wish to reiterate the importance of structural risk factors such as space surrounding the patient, furniture with focus on construction and finishing materials used, and ventilation systems surrounding the patient as risk factors for HAIs and expect that these find a place in HAI prevention guidelines in the future.


Asunto(s)
Infección Hospitalaria , Infección Hospitalaria/prevención & control , Hospitales , Humanos , Unidades de Cuidados Intensivos , Factores de Riesgo
15.
Energy Build ; 229: 110517, 2020 Dec 15.
Artículo en Inglés | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-33041474

RESUMEN

A great fraction (20-40%) of primary energy is required for building air conditioning, so the use of renewable energy sources is increasing. The geothermal energy for Heating, Ventilating and Air Conditioning (HVAC) systems can be used considering an Earth-to-Air Heat eXchanger (EAHX). This work analyses the performance of an EAHX through a mathematical model (2D), as a function of diameter and length of the air ducts. The problem is solved with finite element method. A case study office building is analyzed. The air conditioning plant is characterized by fan-coil units and primary air; the EAHX is positioned upstream the Air Handling Unit (AHU) to pre-cool/pre-heat the air. The building is virtually placed initially in six Italian cities (different climatic zones according to Italian regulation DPR 412/93) and subsequently in eight worldwide cities according to Köppen climate classification. The following parameters are calculated: air temperature variation and thermal efficiency of the EAHX; the decreasing of cooling and heating capacity of the coils into the AHU. The best results refer to a duct length of 100 m for Ottawa (warm-summer humid continental climate, 65% capacity reduction), the worst ones for Rio de Janeiro (tropical wet and dry climate, maximum 24% reduction).

16.
Artículo en Inglés | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-32825607

RESUMEN

In the CoViD-19 pandemic, the precautionary approach suggests that all possible measures should be established and implemented to avoid contagion, including through aerosols. For indoor spaces, the virulence of SARS-CoV-2 could be mitigated not only via air changes, but also by heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) systems maintaining thermodynamic conditions possibly adverse to the virus. However, data available in literature on virus survival were never treated aiming to this. In fact, based on comparisons in terms of specific enthalpy, a domain of indoor comfort conditions between 50 and 60 kJ/kg is found to comply with this objective, and an easy-to-use relationship for setting viable pairs of humidity and temperature using a proper HVAC plant is proposed. If confirmed via further investigations on this research path, these findings could open interesting scenarios on the use of indoor spaces during the pandemic.


Asunto(s)
Aire Acondicionado , Betacoronavirus/fisiología , Calefacción , Termodinámica , Ventilación , COVID-19 , Infecciones por Coronavirus , Humanos , Humedad , Pandemias , Neumonía Viral , SARS-CoV-2 , Temperatura
17.
Sensors (Basel) ; 20(13)2020 Jun 27.
Artículo en Inglés | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-32605088

RESUMEN

This paper presents a novel approach to convert a conventional house air conditioning installation into a more efficient system that individually controls the temperature of each zone of the house through Wi-Fi technology. Each zone regulates the air flow depending on the detected temperature, providing energy savings and increasing the machine performance. Therefore, the first step was to examine the communication bus of the air conditioner and obtain the different signal codes. Thus, an alternative Controller module has been designed and developed to control and manage the requests on the communication bus (Bus-Wi-Fi gateway). A specific circuit has been designed to adapt the signal of the serial port of the Controller with the communication bus. For the acquisition of the temperature and humidity data in each zone, a Node module has been developed, which communicates with the Controller through the Wi-Fi interface using the Message Queuing Telemetry Transport (MQTT) protocol with Secure Sockets Layer / Transport Layer Security (SSL/TLS) certificates. It has been equipped with an LCD touch screen as a human-machine interface. The Controller and the Node modules have been developed with the ultra-low power consumption CC3200 microController of Texas Instruments and the code has been implemented under the TI-RTOS real-time operating system. An additional module based on the Raspberry Pi computer has been designed to create the Wi-Fi network and implement the required network functionalities. The developed system not only ensures that the temperature in each zone is the desired one, but also controls the fan velocity of the indoor unit and the opening area of the vent registers, which considerably improves the efficiency of the system. Compared with the single-zone system, the experiments carried out show energy savings between 75% and 94% when only one of the zones is selected, and 44% when the whole house is air-conditioned, in addition to considerably improving user comfort.

18.
Sensors (Basel) ; 19(6)2019 Mar 21.
Artículo en Inglés | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-30901894

RESUMEN

We investigated non-invasive flow rate measurements in heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) systems utilizing thermal transduction instead of commonly used ultrasonic techniques. The proposed thermal flow transduction comprises two temperature sensors and a heater, all mounted non-invasively on the outer surface of metal-pipes and, therefore, not disturbing the fluid flow inside. One temperature sensor measures the heater temperature, whereas the other one, mounted upstream of the heater, follows the fluid temperature for reference. The temperature difference (i.e., the heater excess temperature) depends on the fluid flow velocity and can be used to derive the mean volume flow inside the pipe. Experimental characterizations were conducted using two sensor prototypes. Beside output characteristics, other main issues such as dynamic behavior and noise density were investigated in detail. Special attention was paid to error compensation allowing measurements within a large range of fluid temperatures. Measurement results confirm the feasibility of this approach, however with some constraints regarding response time.

19.
Sensors (Basel) ; 19(5)2019 Mar 02.
Artículo en Inglés | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-30832337

RESUMEN

We present a thermal flow sensor designed for measuring air as well as water flow velocities in heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) systems. The sensor is designed to integrate the flow along the entire diameter of the pipe also quantifying the volume flow rate of the streaming fluid where the calorimetric principle in constant temperature operation is utilized as a readout method. In the constant temperature mode, a controller keeps a specific excess temperature between sensing elements at a constant level resulting in a flow dependent heater voltage. To achieve cost-effective sensors, the fabrication of the transducer is fully based on printed circuit board technology allowing low-cost mass production with different form factors. In addition, 2D-FEM simulations were carried out in order to predict the sensor characteristic of envisaged setups. The simulation enables a fast and easy way to evaluate the sensor's behaviour in different fluids. The results of the FEM simulations are compared to measurements in real environments, proving the credibility of the model.

20.
Indoor Air ; 28(4): 585-603, 2018 07.
Artículo en Inglés | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-29683212

RESUMEN

This article presents an outcome-based ventilation (OBV) framework, which combines competing ventilation impacts into a monetized loss function ($/occ/h) used to inform ventilation rate decisions. The OBV framework, developed for U.S. offices, considers six outcomes of increasing ventilation: profitable outcomes realized from improvements in occupant work performance and sick leave absenteeism; health outcomes from occupant exposure to outdoor fine particles and ozone; and energy outcomes from electricity and natural gas usage. We used the literature to set low, medium, and high reference values for OBV loss function parameters, and evaluated the framework and outcome-based ventilation rates using a simulated U.S. office stock dataset and a case study in New York City. With parameters for all outcomes set at medium values derived from literature-based central estimates, higher ventilation rates' profitable benefits dominated negative health and energy impacts, and the OBV framework suggested ventilation should be ≥45 L/s/occ, much higher than the baseline ~8.5 L/s/occ rate prescribed by ASHRAE 62.1. Only when combining very low parameter estimates for profitable impacts with very high ones for health and energy impacts were all outcomes on the same order. Even then, however, outcome-based ventilation rates were often twice the baseline rate or more.


Asunto(s)
Contaminación del Aire Interior/análisis , Exposición a Riesgos Ambientales/análisis , Monitoreo del Ambiente/métodos , Exposición Profesional/análisis , Ventilación/métodos , Contaminación del Aire Interior/efectos adversos , Exposición a Riesgos Ambientales/efectos adversos , Estado de Salud , Humanos , Ciudad de Nueva York , Exposición Profesional/efectos adversos , Salud Laboral , Rendimiento Laboral , Lugar de Trabajo
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