The leakage of hazardous chemicals during storage and transport processes is a kind of commonly occurring accident that can pose a serious threat to people’s lives and property. This paper aims to investigate the airflow and dispersion characteristics of hazardous gas around a multiroom building, and evaluate the corresponding exposure risks. The effects on indoor air quality (IAQ) when polluted air enters a room under different indoor and external conditions were examined by using a computational fluid dynamics technique. First, the numerical model established herein was verified by the available wind-tunnel experimental data, and acceptable agreement was found between the predicted and measured velocities. Subsequently, the effects of different natural ventilation paths, wall porosities and outdoor pollutant source characteristics on the airflow and contaminant distribution were evaluated. The study not only reveals the airflow pattern and concentration distribution in indoor spaces under different natural ventilation conditions but also quantitatively analyzes the relationship between the probability of death and the corresponding source strength under the circumstance of pollutant leakage near a building. The results can be useful for the prevention and control of hazardous chemical gas leakages and provide some guidance on evacuation after an accidental or routine leakage.
14 July 2022 in Earthquake Engineering & Structural Dynamics
Based on frequently used internal partitions in offices, the effects of pollutant source characteristics and an internal partition on airflow and contaminant distribution under different ventilation modes are studied in this paper. The indoor flow field measurement is implemented in a 1:1 single environmental chamber under different ventilation patterns, and then the numerical model is established. The numerical method is verified and analyzed by comparing the measured and simulated results. According to the verification results, the numerical simulation is introduced to study the influence of different supply and return air mixes and pollutant source distributions on the flow field and diffusion performance with an internal partition. The indoor flow field and concentration distribution under different conditions are compared, and the discharge efficiency under different working conditions is analyzed. The results indicate that internal partitions have a greater influence on the down-supply up-return ventilation mode than the floor-supply up-return and top-supply down-return ventilation mode. Furthermore, if the room is zoned, the effect of source position is larger under the down-supply up-return ventilation mode than under the other two modes.
6 October 2024 in Reliability Engineering & System Safety
Subway air pollution mainly refers to inhalable particulate matter (PM) pollution, organic pollution, and microbial pollution. Based on the investigation and calculation of the existing researches, this paper summarizes the sources of air pollutants, chemical compositions, and driving factors of PM variations in subway. It evaluates the toxicity and health risks of pollutants. In this paper, the problems and challenges during the deployment of air pollution governance are discussed. Results show that the global PM compliance rate of subway is about 30%. Subway air pollution is endogenous, which means that pollutants mainly come from mechanical wear and building materials erosions. Particles are mainly metal particles, black carbon, and floating dust. The health risks of some chemical elements in the subway have reached critical levels. The variations of PM concentrations show spatial-temporal characteristics, which are mainly controlled by train age, brakes types, and environmental control systems. The authors then analyze the dynamics of interactions among government, companies and public during the air pollution governance by adding the following questions: (a) who pays the bill; (b) how to evaluate the cost-effectiveness of policies; (c) how the public moves from risk perception to actions; (d) how to develop clean air technology better so as to ultimately incentivize stakeholders and to facilitate the implementation of subway clean air programme in a resilient mode.