The worsening urban heat island (UHI) effect poses a great challenge to the thermal comfort of people outdoors. However, there has not been a summary of the mechanisms by which UHI affects outdoor thermal comfort (OTC). This paper reviews the commonly used OTC evaluation indexes, data collection methods, and mitigation measures and discusses the relationship between UHI and OTC. The review is limited to peer-reviewed journal publications found in five databases: Science Direct, Scopus, Google Scholar, PubMed, and Web of Science. The review results indicate that physiological equivalent temperature (PET), universal thermal climate index (UTCI), and wet bulb globe temperature (WBGT) are the most widely used indexes in outdoor thermal comfort studies. The data collection methods mainly include questionnaire surveys, measurement, simulation, and formula calculation. There are four main approaches to mitigating the UHI effect in order to improve the comfort of people outdoors: vegetation strategies, water strategies, urban planning strategies, and material strategies. Future research can focus on developing OTC research methods and indexes and combine thermal comfort with visual comfort, auditory comfort, etc. to better evaluate the overall comfort.

In the production process of biomass energy with crop straw as the raw material, the indoor dust environment created by smashed plant fiber can affect the health of workers and lead to the risk of fire and explosions. The physical properties of biomass vary with the ambient air conditions, resulting in different deposition processes for airborne biomass particles. In this study, the deposition of biomass particles in different environments in an experimental chamber was examined by independently controlling the internal temperature and relative humidity. The results show that in the ambient temperature range of 20~40 °C and at a relative humidity of 25~65%, the water absorption rates of the biomass particles were 15.4~24.7%. The deposition rates of the airborne biomass particles with different sizes were 0.9~2.9 h⁻¹, which positively correlated with the particle sizes in the same ambient conditions. The increase in ambient temperature and relative humidity promoted the deposition of biomass particles with diameters over 0.5 μm. For the particles with diameters below 0.5 μm, the deposition rates were nonlinearly related to the ambient temperature and relative humidity and were greater at lower temperatures. The significance levels of the factors influencing the particle deposition were particle size > ambient temperature > ambient relative humidity. For the biomass particles below 0.5 μm, the influence of the relative humidity on the deposition was much weaker than that of the temperature.

The COVID-19 pandemic has made significant impacts on public health, including human exposure to airborne pathogens. In healthcare facilities, the locations of return air vents in ventilation systems may have important effects on lowering airborne SARS-CoV-2 transmission. This study conducted experiments to examine the influence of different return air vents’ heights (0.7 m, 1.2 m, and 1.6 m) on the particle removal effects in a simulated patient ward. Three different ventilation systems were examined: top celling air supply-side wall return (TAS), underfloor air supply-side wall return (UFAS) and side wall air supply-side wall return (SAS). CFD simulation was applied to further study the effects of return air inlets’ heights (0.3 m, 0.7 m, 1.2 m, 1.6 m, and 2.0 m) and air exchange rates. The technique for order of preference by similarity to ideal solution (TOPSIS) analysis was used to calculate the comprehensive scores of 60 scenarios using a multi-criterion method to obtain the optimal return air inlets’ heights. Results showed that for each additional 0.5 m distance in most working conditions, the inhalation fraction index of medical staff could be reduced by about 5–20%. However, under certain working conditions, even though the distances between the patients and medical personnel were different, the optimal heights of return air vents were constant. For TAS and UFAS, the optimal return air inlets’ height was 1.2 m, while for SAS, the best working condition was 1.6 m air supply and 0.7 m air return. At the optimum return air heights, the particle decay rate per hour of SAS was 75% higher than that of TAS, and the rate of particle decay per hour of SAS was 21% higher than that of UFAS. The location of return air inlets could further affect the operating cost-effectiveness of ventilation systems: the highest operating cost-effectiveness was 8 times higher than the lowest one.

The SARS-CoV virus spreads in the atmosphere mainly in the form of aerosols. Particle air filters are widely used in indoor heating, ventilation, and air-conditioning (HVAC) systems and filtration equipment to reduce aerosol concentration and improve indoor air quality. Requirements arise to rate filters according to their mass-based filtration efficiency. The size distribution of test aerosol greatly affects the measurement results of mass-based filtration efficiency and dust loading of filters, as well as the calibration of optical instruments for fine-particle (PM_2.5) mass concentration measurement. The main objective of this study was to find a new method to generate a chemically nontoxic aerosol with a similar particle size distribution to atmospheric aerosol. We measured the size distribution of aerosols generated by DEHS (di-ethyl-hexyl-sebacate), PSL (poly-styrene latex), olive oil, and 20% sucrose solution with a collision nebulizer in a wide range of 15 nm–20 μm. Individually, none of the solutions generated particles that share a similar size distribution to atmospheric aerosol. We found that the 20% sucrose solution + olive oil mixture solution (Vss:Voo = 1:2) could be used to generate a chemically nontoxic aerosol with similar particle number/volume size distribution to the atmospheric aerosol (t-test, p < 0.05). The differences in the mass-base filtration efficiency measured by the generated aerosol and the atmospheric aerosol were smaller than 2% for MERV 7, 10, 13, and 16 rated filters. The aerosol generated by the new method also performed well in the calibration of optical-principle-based PM_2.5 concentration measurement instruments. The average relative difference measured by a tapered element oscillating microbalance (TEOM) and a Dusttrak Model 8530 (calibrated by aerosol generated by the new method) was smaller than 5.8% in the real-situation measurement.

The side return air is considered to be a ventilation form that can effectively remove indoor particulate matter, and relevant scholars have little research on the height of air return outlet for different air supply methods. In this paper, a single-person ward experimental cabin is established, and the focus is to study the effect of different side return air outlet heights on the particle removal effect under three air supply forms. And use CFD simulation to increase the type of return air outlet height, finally use the technique for order of preference by similarity to ideal solution (TOPSIS) method to comprehensively evaluate the pros and cons of 60 working conditions. The results show that the optimal return air height of top air supply and underfloor air supply is 1.2m, and the best working condition of side air supply is 1.6m air supply-0.7m air return of 12ACH. Most of the working conditions of side air supply are better, followed by top air supply, and finally underfloor air supply.