Dispersion Model for Indoor air Pollutants to Mitigate Sick Building Syndrome

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   Dr. Manori Perera

Supervisors: Prof. (Mrs) C Jayasinghe, Prof. SAS Perera, Dr. SW Rajapaksa

Department: Civil Engineering 

Faculty: Engineering 

People spend most of their time indoors, either at home or at work. Therefore, it is essential to maintain a high level of health and safety inside all types of buildings.

The phenomenon where the health conditions of the occupants are adversely affected due to the indoor environment is called “Sick Building Syndrome” (SBS). In the current context, Indoor Air Pollution (IAP) and its impact on the productivity and efficiency of occupants are broadly being researched. All these studies have emphasized that the ambiance inside a building, significantly affects the health conditions and efficiency of the residents. 

This research study is focused on the effect of selected building materials and human activities on IAP and thereby further studies were conducted on the emission from wet-coating materials to minimize the occurrence of SBS while ensuring the desirable indoors for the occupants. A solvent-based paint was selected for detailed analysis due to the identification of the prominent contribution to the IAP with its usage.

A Computational Fluid Dynamic (CFD) model was developed using ANSYS-Fluent software, which was used to predict the TVOCs concentration generated from wet-coating materials concerning the ventilation rates under the control of environmental and test conditions. The validated CFD model has been introduced to predict the building flush-out period and appropriate ventilation conditions to dilute the accumulated pollutants inside the buildings.

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Abstract                                                                                                     

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