Login | Register

Modeling sorption and its impact on perceived indoor air quality

Title:

Modeling sorption and its impact on perceived indoor air quality

Sakr, Wafa (2004) Modeling sorption and its impact on perceived indoor air quality. PhD thesis, Concordia University.

[thumbnail of NQ90401.pdf]
Preview
Text (application/pdf)
NQ90401.pdf - Accepted Version
6MB

Abstract

This study aimed to investigate and to quantify the impact of sorption processes on perceived air quality using sensory panels as the measuring device. The experiments were performed in four similar, adjacent, unfurnished offices. Samples of carpet, painted gypsum board, virgin gypsum board, linoleum and Semia were tested individually and as a combination of two materials. To investigate the interaction between the pollutants emitted from the test building materials and the actual room surfaces, the air polluted by two different building materials was mixed in a separate room without the presence of the building materials. Each experiment lasted between one week (adsorption stage only) to 10 days (adsorption and desorption stages). Untrained panels assessed the air quality at specific time intervals after moving the materials into or out of the rooms, depending on the design of each experiment. The results indicated that sorption affects the perceived air quality significantly. For all performed experiments, the presence of an additional room surface (samples of painted gypsum board) together with samples of carpet or linoleum improved the perceived air quality in that room and in comparison to the air in the room with carpet alone or painted gypsum board alone. The improvement was consistent despite the different kind of building materials used in the experiments, the different panels that performed the sensory assessments and the different environmental conditions for the different experiments. Moreover, adsorption/desorption coefficients for the room surfaces and the painted gypsum board were calculated assuming a Langmuir type of adsorption and when the pollution source was either carpet or linoleum. As anticipated the linear Langmuir model appeared to be suitable for the painted gypsum board and the room surfaces (flat smooth surfaces). In this work, based on sensory data, it was possible to get reasonable values for sorption parameters for painted gypsum board and the room surfaces presumably because the chemicals emitted from the carpet or linoleum used in the experiments were relatively similar in terms of their sorption parameters. The results demonstrated that sensory assessments could be used to derive sorption parameters for common indoor materials interacting with common indoors pollution sources. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)

Divisions:Concordia University > Gina Cody School of Engineering and Computer Science > Building, Civil and Environmental Engineering
Item Type:Thesis (PhD)
Authors:Sakr, Wafa
Pagination:xvi, 164 leaves : ill. ; 29 cm.
Institution:Concordia University
Degree Name:Ph. D.
Program:Building, Civil and Environmental Engineering
Date:2004
Thesis Supervisor(s):Haghighat, Fariborz and Fanger, O
Identification Number:TD 883.17 S35 2004
ID Code:7859
Deposited By: Concordia University Library
Deposited On:18 Aug 2011 18:08
Last Modified:13 Jul 2020 20:02
Related URLs:
All items in Spectrum are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved. The use of items is governed by Spectrum's terms of access.

Repository Staff Only: item control page

Downloads per month over past year

Research related to the current document (at the CORE website)
- Research related to the current document (at the CORE website)
Back to top Back to top