A Simulation Tool for Temperature and Moisture Dependent Transport of VOC's in Buildings

This work concerns computer simulations of butanol emissions from a heated concrete slab with PVC flooring. Experiments have proved that emissions originate from a chemical reaction when flooring adhesive comes into contact with water entrapped in concrete and if water is of high alkalinity. Due to temperature gradient, moisture from a bottom part of the slab is driven upwards to the flooring surface, where it reaches the adhesive. Our investigation presents moisture content in the concrete after shorter drying, moisture inverse redistribution due to heating and, as a consequence, development and duration of butanol emissions from the slab. For this analysis we have developed a simulation tool, HAM-VOC-Tools, which is capable to analyse distribution of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in porous building materials under temperature and moisture gradients. Results of HAM-VOC simulations agree well with experiments.

[1]  A. Hodgson,et al.  Modeling the reversible, diffusive sink effect in response to transient contaminant sources. , 2002, Indoor air.

[2]  P. Hansson.  The Sink-Effect in Indoor Materials : Mathematical Modelling and Experimental Studies , 2003 .

[3]  Lindvall Thomas,et al.  European Collaborative Action "Indoor Air Quality and its Impact on Man". Report No. 19. Total Volatile Organic Compounds (TVOC) in Indoor Air Quality Investigations. , 1997 .

[4]  Carsten Rode,et al.  The international building physics toolbox in Simulink , 2007 .

[5]  Angela Sasic Kalagasidis,et al.  HAM-Tools - An Integrated Simulation Tool for Heat, Air and Moisture Transfer Analyses in Building Physics , 2004 .

[6]  Henrik Karlsson.  DEVELOPMENT OF A MODULAR TOOLBOX IN SIMULINK FOR DYNAMIC SIMULATIONS OF VOC-CONCENTRATION IN INDOOR AIR , 2005 .

[7]  Fariborz Haghighat,et al.  Integrated IAQ model for prediction of VOC emissions from building material , 2003 .

[8]  Geo Clausen,et al.  Total Volatile Organic Compounds (TVOC) in Indoor Air Quality Investigations , 1997 .

[9]  J. Niu,et al.  Modeling VOCs emissions in a room with a single-zone multi-component multi-layer technique , 2004 .

[10]  P. Padhy,et al.  Total volatile organic compounds in the urban environment of Delhi. , 1998, Journal of the Air & Waste Management Association.

[11]  Robert J. Magee,et al.  Numerical simulation of VOC emissions from dry materials , 2001 .

[12]  Henrik Karlsson.  MODELING OF VOCs IN INDOOR ENVIRONMENT WITH A MODULAR TOOLBOX , 2005 .

[13]  A. Bodalal,et al.  A method for measuring internal diffusion and equilibrium partition coefficients of volatile organic compounds for building materials , 2000 .