CIVIL-460: Indoor air quality and ventilation

Summary

This course provides a fundamental knowledge of an emerging area - indoor air quality. This course also gives an overview of ventilation strategies and airflow distribution strategies tuned to ensure the highest level of air quality in buildings.

Official source

https://edu.epfl.ch/coursebook/en/indoor-air-quality-and-ventilation-CIVIL-460

Moodle Page

http://go.epfl.ch/CIVIL-460

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Instructor

Lectures in this course (17)

Related concepts (66)

Related MOOCs (5)

Dusan Licina

Dusan Licina is a Tenure Track Assistant Professor of Indoor Environmental Quality at the School for Architecture, Civil, and Environmental Engineering (ENAC) at EPFL. He leads the Human-Oriented Built Environment Lab (HOBEL) in Fribourg since 1 June 2018. Dusan’s research and teaching are driven by the need to advance knowledge of the intersections between people and the built environment in order to ensure high indoor environmental quality for building occupants with minimum energy input. His research group specializes in air quality engineering, focusing on understanding of concentrations, dynamics and fates of air pollutants within buildings, and development and application of methods to quantitatively describe relationships between air pollution sources and consequent human exposures. His research interests also encompass optimization of building ventilation systems with an aim to improve air quality and thermal comfort in an energy-efficient manner. Throughout his career, Dusan specialized in air quality engineering, focusing on sources and transport of air pollutants in buildings, human exposure assessment, and optimization of building ventilation systems with an aim to improve air quality. Dusan completed my joint Doctorate degree at the National University of Singapore and Technical University of Denmark. He was formerly master and bachelor student in Mechanical Engineering at the University of Belgrade, Serbia. Prior to joining EPFL, Dusan worked for 3.5 years in the USA, first he was a postdoctoral researcher at the University of California Berkeley, and then he served as director on the standard development team at International WELL Building Institute (IWBI) in New York. Dusan is the recipient of several honors and awards, including Ralph G. Nevin’s award by the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE) given in recognition of significant accomplishment in the study of human response to the environment. He is editorial board member of the highly acclaimed Indoor Air journal. He is passionate about raising awareness about the air quality issues worldwide and developing buildings that are not only energy efficient, but that also contribute to “Michelin Star” indoor air quality.

Sick building syndrome

Sick building syndrome (SBS) is a condition in which people develop symptoms of illness or become infected with chronic disease from the building in which they work or reside. The main identifying observation is an increased incidence of complaints of symptoms such as headache, eye, nose, and throat irritation, fatigue, dizziness, and nausea. In fact the 1989 Oxford English Dictionary defines SBS in that way.

Ventilation (architecture)

Ventilation is the intentional introduction of outdoor air into a space. Ventilation is mainly used to control indoor air quality by diluting and displacing indoor pollutants; it can also be used to control indoor temperature, humidity, and air motion to benefit thermal comfort, satisfaction with other aspects of the indoor environment, or other objectives. The intentional introduction of outdoor air is usually categorized as either mechanical ventilation, natural ventilation, or mixed-mode ventilation (hybrid ventilation).

Heating, ventilation, and air conditioning

Heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) is the use of various technologies to control the temperature, humidity, and purity of the air in an enclosed space. Its goal is to provide thermal comfort and acceptable indoor air quality. HVAC system design is a subdiscipline of mechanical engineering, based on the principles of thermodynamics, fluid mechanics, and heat transfer. "Refrigeration" is sometimes added to the field's abbreviation as HVAC&R or HVACR, or "ventilation" is dropped, as in HACR (as in the designation of HACR-rated circuit breakers).

Indoor air quality

Indoor air quality (IAQ) is the air quality within and around buildings and structures. IAQ is known to affect the health, comfort, and well-being of building occupants. Poor indoor air quality has been linked to sick building syndrome, reduced productivity, and impaired learning in schools. Common pollutants of indoor air include: secondhand tobacco smoke, air pollutants from indoor combustion, radon, molds and other allergens, carbon monoxide, volatile organic compounds, legionella and other bacteria, asbestos fibers, carbon dioxide, ozone and particulates.

Healthy building

Healthy building refers to an emerging area of interest that supports the physical, psychological, and social health and well-being of people in buildings and the built environment. Buildings can be key promoters of health and well-being since most people spend a majority of their time indoors. According to the National Human Activity Pattern Survey, Americans spend "an average of 87% of their time in enclosed buildings and about 6% of their time in enclosed vehicles.