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Journal article
Do time-averaged, whole-building, effective volatile organic compound (VOC) emissions depend on the air exchange rate? A statistical analysis of trends for 46 VOCs in US offices
Indoor air, v 26(4), pp 642-659
01 Aug 2016
PMID: 26010216
Featured in Collection : UN Sustainable Development Goals @ Drexel
Abstract
We used existing data to develop distributions of time-averaged air exchange rates (AER), whole-building effective' emission rates of volatile organic compounds (VOC), and other variables for use in Monte Carlo analyses of U.S. offices. With these, we explored whether long-term VOC emission rates were related to the AER over the sector, as has been observed in the short term for some VOCs in single buildings. We fit and compared two statistical models to the data. In the independent emissions model (IEM), emissions were unaffected by other variables, while in the dependent emissions model (DEM), emissions responded to the AER via coupling through a conceptual boundary layer between the air and a lumped emission source. For 20 of 46 VOCs, the DEM was preferable to the IEM and emission rates, though variable, were higher in buildings with higher AERs. Most oxygenated VOCs and some alkanes were well fit by the DEM, while nearly all aromatics and halocarbons were independent. Trends by vapor pressure suggested multiple mechanisms could be involved. The factors of temperature, relative humidity, and building age were almost never associated with effective emission rates. Our findings suggest that effective emissions in real commercial buildings will be difficult to predict from deterministic experiments or models.
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Details
- Title
- Do time-averaged, whole-building, effective volatile organic compound (VOC) emissions depend on the air exchange rate? A statistical analysis of trends for 46 VOCs in US offices
- Creators
- A. Rackes - Drexel UniversityM. S. Waring - Drexel University
- Publication Details
- Indoor air, v 26(4), pp 642-659
- Publisher
- Wiley
- Number of pages
- 18
- Grant note
- American Society of Heating, Refrigerating, and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE) 1002809 / NSF Graduate Research Fellowship; National Science Foundation (NSF) 1055584 / U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF); National Science Foundation (NSF)
- Resource Type
- Journal article
- Language
- English
- Academic Unit
- Civil, Architectural, and Environmental Engineering
- Web of Science ID
- WOS:000379916900014
- Scopus ID
- 2-s2.0-85027943868
- Other Identifier
- 991019168229004721
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InCites Highlights
Data related to this publication, from InCites Benchmarking & Analytics tool:
- Web of Science research areas
- Construction & Building Technology
- Engineering, Environmental
- Public, Environmental & Occupational Health