Building and Environment 41 (2006) 557567

Data-based mechanistic modelling approach to determine

the age of air in a ventilated space
S. Van Buggenhout
a
, T. Zerihun Desta
a
, A. Van Brecht
a
, E. Vranken
a
,
S. Quanten
a
, W. Van Malcot
b
, D. Berckmans
a,
a
Laboratory for Agricultural Buildings Research, Department of Agro-engineering and -Economics, Catholic University of Leuven,
Kasteelpark Arenberg 30, Leuven B-3001, Belgium
b
Katholieke Hogeschool Kempen, Kleinhoefstraat 4, 2440 Geel
Received 27 January 2005; received in revised form 21 February 2005; accepted 23 February 2005
Abstract
In literature, local mean age of air is used as an important index to evaluate indoor air quality in ventilated rooms. In this
research, a data-based mechanistic approach is used to model the spatialtemporal mass distribution in an imperfectly mixed forced
ventilated installation. A rst-order transfer function model has proved to be sufciently good in describing the mass transfer
dynamics R
2
t
0:987 of the system. Furthermore, it was possible to fully understand the physical meaning of the model parameter.
The parameter is found to be an inverse of the age of air. This Data-Based Modelling approach proved to be more robust when
dealing with measurement noise. Finally, the modelled age of air was validated with a classical step up determination of the age of
air for experimental data. Good correlation R
2
t
0:77 was found between both results, which proved the physical background of
the model parameter.
r 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Imperfectly mixed uids; Data-based mechanistic modelling; Age of air; Mass transfer; Ventilation effectiveness
1. Introduction
In everyday life, we are always confronted with
imperfectly mixed uids. Every uid in nature, whether
it is a gas or a liquid, is imperfectly mixed and
characterised by spatialtemporal gradients of heat
and mass transfer variables. In ventilated airspaces
(domestic buildings, ofce rooms, supermarkets, trans-
port systems, medical facilities, etc.) and in agricultural
and industrial process rooms (greenhouses, animal
houses, chemical vessels, bio-reactors, etc.), it is desir-
able to control the spatialtemporal heat and mass
distribution in the imperfectly mixed uid in order to
achieve optimum process quality with a minimum use of
energy [1].
Local mean age of air is an important index for the
evaluation of ventilation effectiveness and air distribu-
tion in buildings. Recent researches have revealed the
importance of providing fresh air to the breathing zone
of the living organism. On humans, a close link was
observed between the micro-environment and climate-
related diseases: e.g. Sick Building Syndrome (SBS),
asthma and allergic reactions [25].
Distribution of ventilated air can be visualised by
measuring the local mean age of air [6,7] at different
positions. The local mean age of air at a point in a room
is the mean time period required for outdoor air to reach
that particulate location since entering the room. This
parameter is used to assess ventilation effectiveness (e.g.
[7]). Quantication is done by injecting tracer gases
(CO
2
, SF
6
, etc.) at the inlet and recording gas
concentration at the position of interest. The tracer
gas can be injected by pulse, step-up or step-down
methods. However, due to integration errors [810], the
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doi:10.1016/j.buildenv.2005.02.029

Corresponding author. Tel.: +32 16 321726; fax: +32 16 321480.

E-mail address: daniel.berckmans@agr.kuleuven.ac.be
(D. Berckmans).
determination of this local mean age of air is not
straightforward.
This paper presents a new approach for the determi-
nation of this ventilation effectiveness parameter. A
Data-Based Mechanistic (DBM) modelling technique is
used for modelling the mass transfer phenomena in a
forced ventilated room.
Most existing models are or mechanistic (white box)
models or data-based (black box) models. Mechanistic
models describe the system based on a priori dened
physical, mechanical, chemical and/or biological me-
chanisms underlying the physics of the system [11].
These mechanistic models (e.g. Computational Fluid
Dynamics (CFD)) are restrictive due to their exceptional
complexity. One must be aware of the fact that
mechanistic models constitute a large number of
assumptions and approximations [12] resulting in
models that lack the necessary accuracy to be appro-
priate for control purposes. In the data-based modelling
approach, the model structure is inferred and the model
parameters are identied using informative experimental
data and applying more objective, statistically based
methods (e.g. [13]). These techniques can deliver
accurate models but the complete lack of physical
insight is a major drawback in their formulation,
making them application specic models.
A DBM model is an intermediate type of model, which
exploits the availability of time-series data in statistical
terms and also attempts to produce models which have a
physical (mechanistic) meaning. These data-based me-
chanistic (or grey box) models provide a physically
meaningful description of the dominant internal dy-
namics of heat and mass transfer in the imperfectly mixed
uid, while providing low order models [14,15]. The
strength of these models is that they combine the
advantages of both mechanistic or white box (generality,
knowledge based) and data-based or black box (compact,
accurate) models and are, therefore, an ideal basis for
model-based control system design [16].
In the present paper, the DBM approach is applied in
order to assess ventilation performance in a forced
ventilation type of building. More precisely, the age of
air of a mechanically ventilated structure is determined
by using a data-based model with physically meaningful
parameters. The values of the modelled age of air are
validated with a classical numerical (step inlet injection
method, [7]) determination of the age of air.
2. Materials and methods
2.1. Test installation
The laboratory test room, represented in Fig. 1, is a
mechanically ventilated room with a length of 3 m, a
height of 2 m and a width of 1.5 m. It has a slot inlet (1 in
Fig. 1) in the left sidewall just beneath the ceiling and an
asymmetrically positioned, circular air outlet (2 in
Fig. 1) in the right sidewall just above the oor. The
volume of the room is 9 m
3
. An enveloping chamber of
length 4 m, width 2.5 m and height 3 m (6 in Fig. 1) is
built around the test room to reduce disturbing effects of
varying laboratory conditions (uctuating temperature,
opening doors, etc.). The test room and the enveloping
chamber are both constructed of transparent Plexiglas
through which the air ow pattern can be observed
during ow visualisation experiments.
A mechanical ventilation system enables an accurate
control (accuracy of 76m
3
/h) of the ventilation rate in the
range 70420m
3
/h. A heat exchanger is provided in the
supply air duct to regulate the temperature of the inowing
air. A series of ve aluminium heat sources (4 in Fig. 1),
with a semi-conductor heat source is used to physically
simulate the heat production of the occupant(s).
To measure the dynamic spatial gas concentration
distribution in the test chamber, 36 air sampling tubes
are located in a 3-D measuring grid (7 in Fig. 1) covering
a large part of the room. The tubes are located in two
vertical xy-planes: a front sensor plane (0.375 m from
the front wall) and a rear sensor plane (0.375 m from
the back wall). The lower sensors in both sensor planes
are positioned at a height of 0.8 m above the oor, the
upper sensors are 0.4 m beneath the ceiling and the
middle sensors are at a height of 1.2 m above the oor.
The left sensors are positioned 0.4 m from the inlet wall
and the right sensors are positioned 0.6 m from the
outlet wall (see Fig. 1).
A pneumatic system (9 in Fig. 1) with two-way
solenoid valves is used to direct the gas sample at the
selected position in the room to the gas analyser. The
measurement accuracy of the gas analyser is 710 ppm
for CO
2
. The sampling rate used is 3.3 s. Moreover, a
data logger is provided that monitors ventilation rate
and temperature inside the room. All the recorded data
are stored on a central computer. A pressurised CO
2
gas
bottle (N95) in combination with a computerised gas
ow rate controller is used to inject the tracer gas into
the air inlet.
2.2. Data-based mechanistic modelling
In DBM modelling techniques, the model structure is
rst identied using objective methods of time series
analysis based on a given, general class of time series
model (here linear, continuous-time transfer functions
(TF) or the equivalent ordinary differential equations
are used). A continuous-time TF model for a single-
input single output (SISO) system has the following
general form:
yt
Bs
As
ut d xt, (1)
ARTICLE IN PRESS
S. Van Buggenhout et al. / Building and Environment 41 (2006) 557567 558
where s is the Laplace operator, i.e. s d=dt; yt is the
noisy measured output; ut is the model input; d is the
time delay; xt is additive noise, assumed to be a zero
mean, serially uncorrelated sequence of random vari-
ables with variance s
2
accounting for measurement
noise, modelling errors and effects of unmeasured inputs
to the process; and nally, As and Bs are polynomials
in the s operator of the following form:
As s
n
a
1
s
n1
. . . a
n
, (2)
Bs b
0
s
m
b
1
s
m1
. . . b
m
, (3)
where mpn; a
1
, a
2
, y, a
n
and b
0
, b
1
, y, b
m
are the TF
denominator and numerator parameters, respectively.
Once the inputoutput data are available, model
parameters (Eqs. (2) and (3)) can be identied by using
statistical procedures. But the resulting model is only
considered fully acceptable if, in addition to explaining
the data well, it also provides a description that has
relevance to the physical reality of the system under
consideration. The ability to estimate parameters
represents only one side of the model identication
problem. Equally important is the problem of objective
model order identication. This involves the identica-
tion of the best choice of orders of the numerator and
denominator polynomials, together with the time delay.
The parameters of a TF model may be estimated using
various methods of identication and estimation proce-
dures [17,18]. Although Least Squares (LS) is one of the
most commonly used model estimation algorithm, the
estimated model parameters become asymptotically
biased away from their true values in the presence of
measurement or disturbance noise signal [17]. Here we
use the more complex Simplied Rened Instrumental
Variable (SRIV) algorithm [17], that uses the Instru-
mental Variable (IV) approach coupled with special
adaptive preltering to avoid this bias and to achieve
good estimation performance. A reasonably successful
identication is based on minimisation of the Young
Identication Criterion YIC:
YIC ln
^ s
2
s
2
y
ln
1
np
X
np
i1
^ s
2
^ p
ii
^ a
2
i
!
, (4)
where ^ s
2
is the sample variance of the model residuals,
s
2
y
is the sample variance of the measured system output
about its mean value, np is the total number of model
parameters, i.e. np n m1, ^ a
2
i
is the square of the
ith element in the parameter vector ^ a, ^ p
ii
is the ith
diagonal element of the inverse cross product matrix
PN, ^ s
2
^ p
ii
can be considered as an approximate
estimate of the variance of the estimated uncertainty
on the ith parameter estimate.
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Fig. 1. Laboratory test chamber with sampling system to measure spatial gas concentration distributions. 1. Pressurised CO
2
gas bottle, 2. gas ow
rate controller, 3. air inlet, 4. air outlet, 5. shallow hot water reservoir, 6. aluminium conductor heat sink, 7. 3-D measurement grid consisting of 36
sampling tubes, 8. envelope chamber or buffer zone, 9. multipoint sampler consisting of pc-controlled solenoid valves, 10. gas analyser, 11.
datalogging system.
S. Van Buggenhout et al. / Building and Environment 41 (2006) 557567 559
YIC is a heuristic statistical criterion which consists of
two terms, as shown in Eq. (2). The rst term provides a
normalised measure of how well the model ts the data:
the smaller the variance of the model residuals in
relation to the variance of the measured output, the
smaller this term becomes. The second term is a
normalised measure of how well the model parameter
estimates are dened. This term tends to become bigger
when the model is over-parameterised and the para-
meter estimates are poorly dened. Consequently, the
model which minimises the YIC provides a good
compromise between goodness of t and parametric
efciency. While the YIC can be a great help in en-
suring that the model is not over-parameterised, it
is not always good at discriminating models that
have a lower order than the best model [19]. Hence,
the YIC will often, if applied strictly, identify a model
that is under-parameterised. Therefore, it is used
together with the coefcient of determination R
2
T
. The
coefcient of determination is a statistical measure of
how well the model ts the experimental data. If the
sample variance ^ s
2
i
of the model residuals is low
compared with the sample variance sy
2
of the measured
system output about its mean value, then R
2
tends
towards unity. If ^ s
2
is of similar magnitude to s
2
y
, then it
tends towards zero.
R
2
1
^ s
2
s
2
y
. (5)
If the YIC identied model has an adequate R
T
2
which
is not signicantly lower than the R
2
of the higher order
models, it may be fully accepted as the best model in
statistical terms. The SRIV structure identication
criterion has been proven very successful in practical
applications [19].
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Table 1
Overview of the identication experiments
Experiment Ventilation rate (m
3
/h) Refreshment rate (1/h) Supply air temperature (1C) Air ow pattern
1 80 9 11.5 Anti-clockwise
2 120 13 11.5 Anti-clockwise
3 160 18 11.5 Anti-clockwise
4 200 22 11.5 Clockwise
5 240 27 11.5 Clockwise
6 300 33 11.5 Clockwise
Fig. 2. The output of a rst-, second- and third-order TF models compared with the measured CO
2
concentration response at sensor position inside
the measuring grid (position 15) for experiment 2.
S. Van Buggenhout et al. / Building and Environment 41 (2006) 557567 560
2.3. Experiments for identication of a reduced-order
linear model
When a set of informative inputoutput data is
generated, a reduced-order, linear model can be
identied to describe the data in a sufciently accurate
way. To identify the parameters of the TF model for
each of the 36 sampling positions in the test chamber, 6
identication experiments were carried out as presented
in Table 1.
For each experiment, the CO
2
concentration at the air
supply was raised to 1905 ppm during 47 min (time
needed to obtain steady-state conditions in test installa-
tion), whilst maintaining a constant ventilation rate. The
experiments were carried out over a wide range of low
(80, 120 and 160 m
3
/h) and high (200, 240 and 300 m
3
/h)
ventilation rates. The total internal heat production of
the 5 heating elements was maintained constant at 300 J/
s and the temperature of the incoming air is kept
constant at 11.5 1C.
In each of the 6 experiments, the ventilation rate,
supply air CO
2
concentration and the CO
2
concentra-
tion response at each of the 36 spatially distributed
sampling positions in the test chamber were recorded
every 3.3 s. A typical identication experiment at a
position inside the measuring grid is presented in Fig. 2.
Further, in each experiment, non-toxic smoke is injected
in the room and ow patterns are recorded by a digital
camera.
3. Results and discussion
3.1. Parameter identication
The continuous-time SRIV algorithm [19] is used to
identify the linear TF model between the supply air CO
2
concentration and the CO
2
concentration at a certain
spatial point.
Table 1 shows that a rst-order model (Eq. (5)) yields
an excellent explanation of the convective mass transfer
of the system according to the three basic principles of
the SRIV algorithm: minimal number of parameters,
high reliability of the parameters estimation and high
accuracy of the model to describe the CO
2
concentration
dynamics (Table 2 and Fig. 3).
c
i
t
b
0
s a
1
c
0
t, (6)
where c
i
is the dynamic CO
2
concentration at position i
(ppm); c
0
is the dynamic supply air CO
2
concentration
(ppm). The R
T
2
values are similar for rst-, second- and
third-order models. However, when the YIC-values are
considered the rst-order system is more parametrical
efcient than the higher order models. This demon-
strates that the mass transfer phenomenon obeys rst-
order dynamics.
When applied to all 36 sensor positions in all
experiments, the rst-order model describes the data
with an average R
2
of 0.987 and an average YIC-value
of 14.91 (Table 3).
3.2. Physical interpretation of model parameterWell-
Mixed Zone Concept
The DBM approach represents the imperfectly mixed
uid in a process room by a number of well-mixed zones
(WMZs) which are dened around the nodes of a sensor
grid. A WMZ is a 3-D-zone of improved mixing with a
certain volume wherein acceptably low spatial gradients
occur. These WMZs exist in every imperfectly mixed
uid and for each considered variable such as, for
example, CO
2
-concentration, temperature, humidity,
etc. A schematic representation of a WMZ in a process
room with inlet uid ow rate V (m
3
/s) is given in Fig. 3.
ARTICLE IN PRESS
Table 2
The model parameter estimates with associated relative standard error
Order of TF Parameter estimates Relative standard error (%) R
T
2
(dimensionless) YIC value (dimensionless)
[1 1 9] a
1
0:013 x a
1
0:32 0.998 17,146
b
0
22; 094 x b
0
0:31
[2 2 11] a
1
0:022 x a
1
2:89 0.999 10,801
a
2
0:000 x a
2
8:21
b
0
24; 190 x b
0
0:42
b
1
0:157 x b
1
8:16
[3 3 11] a
1
0:050 x a
1
7:04 0.999 5297
a
2
0:001 x a
2
22:67
a
3
0:000 x a
3
141:22
b
0
26; 697 x b
0
0:68
b
1
0:809 x b
1
9:92
b
2
0:002 x b
2
136:29
The YIC value and the coefcient of determination R
2
of a rst-, second- and third-order continuous-time TF model for sensor position 1.
S. Van Buggenhout et al. / Building and Environment 41 (2006) 557567 561
To describe the dynamic behaviour of mass transfer in
the considered WMZs, standard mass transfer theory
can be applied. In case of a constant ventilation rate, a
linear, rst-order differential equation (as previously
identied from experimental data) can be formulated as
dC
i
tvol
i
r
i
dt
V
c;i
C
o
tr
o
V
c;i
C
i
tr
i
, (7)
where t is the time (s); C
i
is the concentration of CO
2
in
the WMZ (ppm); C
0
is the concentration of CO
2
in the
supply air (ppm); vol
i
is the volume of the WMZ (m
3
);
V
c,i
is the part of the total ventilation rate that enters the
considered WMZ i (m
3
/h); r
i
is the density (kg/m
3
) of
the air in WMZ; r
0
is the density (kg/m
3
) of the supply
air and subscript i is the position index. But because of
small refreshment rates used and since indoor air
temperature is kept constant, the density difference of
the air can be neglected in these experiments. The
average concentration of CO
2
in the air before injection
is equal to 500 ppm (750 ppm). The average tempera-
ture of the surrounding laboratory is equal to an average
value of 21 1C.
In contrast to the zonal and nodal models in lite-
rature [20,21], the different WMZs are considered as
decoupled or non-interactive zones, because the objec-
tive was to control the conditions in a WMZ by using
the fresh air at the inlet conditions. To do so the
inuence of the inlet conditions on a specic WMZ must
be modelled. Since the air inlet conditions are respon-
sible for the mass concentration characteristics of the
zone, the model only creates a link between the inlet and
individual zones.
Since every living organism in a bio-process needs an
adequate amount of oxygen rich fresh air, the focus on
the WMZ model concept is to model the 3-D- trans-
port of fresh air to a particular zone. This is established
by using local fresh air ow rate V
Ci
. The local fresh
air ow rate is the air ow rate with the same
gas concentrations like the incoming air at the inlet
that would have created the aggregate effect of the
convective ux interaction with the neighbouring
zones on the WMZ in consideration. This is a very
useful assumption, because it creates a direct relation-
ship between individual zones without the need for
modelling zonal interactions. When this concept is
applied in an on-line way, the inuence of zonal
interactions on the relationship inlet-specic zone is
taken into account. When considering non-interactive
WMZs, the spatialtemporal model is also less complex
and it is an excellent basis for control purposes. The
response of each WMZ to changes in the inlet
conditions is described by a single model, resulting in
n rst-order models for n WMZs that can be used for
controlling the conditions in the n WMZs each time only
using the air inlet conditions.
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C
i
(t)
well mixed zone
V
C
o
(t)
V
c,i
.C
o
(t
i
).
o
V
c,i
.C
i
(t).
i
Fig. 3. Schematic representation of the WMZ concept.
Table 3
The mean value over the 6 experiments of the relative standard errors
xb, xa on the model parameter estimates
Sensor x (b) x (a) R
T
2
YIC
1 1.66 1.70 0.985 13.55
2 0.69 0.72 0.989 14.12
3 0.55 0.57 0.995 15.19
4 1.02 1.04 0.990 14.00
5 0.58 0.60 0.994 15.07
6 0.79 0.82 0.982 13.49
7 1.51 1.55 0.987 13.82
8 0.72 0.78 0.962 13.97
9 0.65 0.66 0.994 14.96
10 0.55 0.57 0.994 14.91
11 0.65 0.68 0.982 14.21
12 1.04 1.07 0.992 14.17
13 0.55 0.57 0.994 14.88
14 0.57 0.59 0.994 14.79
15 0.82 0.80 0.983 13.61
16 0.68 0.71 0.987 14.47
17 0.95 1.00 0.949 12.99
18 1.29 1.32 0.984 14.00
19 0.85 0.88 0.959 13.88
20 0.37 0.35 0.988 16.67
21 0.75 0.76 0.991 14.38
22 0.78 0.79 0.987 13.86
23 0.61 0.63 0.992 14.95
24 0.68 0.70 0.991 14.27
25 0.68 0.70 0.992 14.61
26 0.76 0.79 0.989 13.71
27 0.68 0.70 0.992 14.18
28 0.66 0.68 0.989 14.05
29 0.64 0.66 0.992 14.23
30 0.81 0.83 0.989 13.75
31 0.38 0.40 0.987 38.12
32 0.57 0.59 0.994 14.70
33 0.60 0.62 0.993 14.46
34 1.76 1.80 0.989 13.42
35 0.64 0.67 0.991 14.19
36 1.19 1.23 0.988 13.28
Mean 0.80 0.82 0.987 14.91
The coefcient of determination and the YIC-value for each of the 36
sensor positions.
S. Van Buggenhout et al. / Building and Environment 41 (2006) 557567 562
Under constant ventilation rate, Eq. (6) can be
rewritten as
dC
i
t
dt
b
i
C
o
t b
i
C
i
t, (8)
where b
i
is the local refreshment frequency,
b
i

V
c;i
vol
i
.
Integrating Eq. (7) gives rise to following equation:
Z
C
i
0
dC
i
t
C
o
t C
i
t

Z
t
0
b
i
dt. (9)
Solving the integral in Eq. (8) results in
C
i
t C
0
t1 e
b
i
t
. (10)
This function represents the exponential accumula-
tion of the tracer gas inside the ventilated room. At
innity, C
i
t will be equal to C
o
t, the constant
concentration at the end of the experiments.
3.3. Local mean age of air
The local mean age of air is an index used to quantify
ventilation effectiveness and to visualise air ow
patterns in a ventilation system [22]. Local mean age
of air is the mean time required for all uid particles to
arrive at a position of interest from the inlet. It is the
mean time required to refresh a certain position in a
room once. There are three methods of quantifying this
index [7]. All are based on tracer injection at the inlet
and gas concentration readings at sampling positions in
the room. These methods use advanced statistical
distribution analysis [6].
Local mean age of air for step inlet injection is dened
as [6]
t
i

Z
1
0
1
C
i
t
C
i
1

dt, (11)
where t
i
is the local mean age of air at the position i,
C
i
t is the contaminant concentration at position i at
time t, C
i
1 is the contaminant concentration at
position i after a long time. Numerical procedures can
be applied to solve the above equation on condition that
concentration data are available. In this research,
the numerical integral is calculated using the Simpson
rule [23].
Plugging Eq. (9) into Eq. (10) and taking C
i
1 is
equal to C
0
yields
t
i

Z
1
0
1
C
0
t1 e
b
i
t

C
0

dt. (12)
Solving gives
t
i

Z
1
0
e
b
i
t
dt
e
b
i
t
b

1
0
,
t
i
0
1
b
i

,
t
i

1
b
i
. 13
For rst-order system with zero time delay the local
age of air, t
i
s, is the inverse of the local refreshment
frequency, b
i
(s
1
). Zerihun Desta et al. [24] proved the
potential of this equation based on numerical CFD-
data.
The WMZ concept, which results in the formulation
of the DBM model, and the associated mass balance
differential equation, can be applied to each of the
spatially distributed monitoring positions in the test
room.
3.4. Parameter contour plots
Fig. 4 shows an example of the spatial contours of the
parameter b
i
(s
1
) in the front and the rear sensor plane
of the test installation at a ventilation rate of 240 m
3
/h
(identication experiment 5).
Further, the contour plots relate well to the air ow
pattern, which is presented in Fig. 5 and was visualised
through smoke experiments [25].
At high ventilation rates, the incoming fresh air
rapidly moves across the top of the ventilated chamber,
hits the right sidewall and then descends towards the exit
at the lower right, where some of the air ow recirculates
in a clockwise direction. An increase in the air freshness
in the direction of the air ow is quite noticeable from
the contours of the local refreshment frequency b
i
.
At low ventilation rates, the incoming air moves
downwards, hits the oor and moves to the outlet, some
air makes a counter clock wise circulation.
3.5. Sensitivity analysis to measurement noise
To demonstrate the usefulness of the proposed
methodology for the determination of the local mean
age of air, a sensitivity analysis was performed. The
consistency of both methods was checked when dealing
with different levels of measurement noise.
To show the effects of noise on both methods, a tracer
step injection was simulated (time constant 20 s,
gain 1) and the local mean age of air was calculated
through both methods. This simulation made it possible
to demonstrate the effects of introducing random noise.
In Fig. 6, the relative error (RE) on the age of air
determination is plotted as a function of relative
sampling rate (%) without the presence of noise for
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S. Van Buggenhout et al. / Building and Environment 41 (2006) 557567 563
both methods. This relative sampling rate is dened as
the ratio of the sampling rate over the time constant. In
this case, both methods give reliable results (RE
o0.5%) for all sampling rates. When dealing with noise
free data, it can be concluded that the numerical
integration method for the determination of the age of
air is accurate enough. The tendency can be observed
that the measurement error augments with higher
sampling rates.
Experimental data however is always biased with
different levels of noise. Fig. 7 shows the results of age of
air determination when noise level is increasing for a
relative sampling rate of 1.6% ( sampling rate of 3 s)
of both methods. A Monte Carlo Analysis was carried
out to determine the condence intervals of both
methods. One thousand simulations were performed.
The mean RE of the numerical integration method was
below 3%, but this method becomes biased in the
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Fig. 4. Spatial contour plots of parameter b
i
(s
1
) at 240 m
3
/h in the 2 vertical planes.
31
34
36
35
32
33
28 22 16 10 4
6
5
1
3
2
7
9
8
13
15
14
19
21
20
25
27
26
12
11
18
17
29
30
23
24
31
34
36
35
32
33
28 22 16 10 4
6
5
1
3
2
7
9
8
13
15
14
19
21
20
25
27
26
12
11
18
17
29
30
23
24
Fig. 5. The visualised air ow pattern at 240 m
3
/h.
S. Van Buggenhout et al. / Building and Environment 41 (2006) 557567 564
presence of noise. The condence interval of the RE
becomes larger for higher noise levels, more precisely
ranging from 0.6 to 0.4% for 1% noise; from 3.6 to
1.8% for 5% noise and from 6% to 1.4% for 7%
noise. The condence intervals of the DBM method
remain constant for different levels of noise (1% noise:
0.010.01%; 5% noise: 0.040.03% and 7% noise:
0.030.07%).
When collecting experimental data, repetitions are a
necessity, but the accuracy of the numerical integration
method will be far less than the accuracy of the DBM
method. This indicates that when experimental data
(with inevitable measurement noise) is used the actual
determination of the age of air with the numerical
integration method becomes biased away from the
actual value depending on the noise level of the data.
Besides being suitable for controlling purposes, due to
the compact model structure, the DBM method for the
determination of the local mean age of air proved to be
more robust for measurement noise and gave more
reliable results.
3.6. Validation of the physical meaning of the modelled
age of air
In Fig. 8, the results for all ventilation rates and all 36
positions in the room are presented in a graphical way,
more precisely; the numerically calculated age (integra-
tion method) is plotted against the modelled version
(model parameter t
i
1=b
i
).
Fig. 8 clearly demonstrates that a linear relationship
exists between the modelled and the numerical integra-
tion values of the age of air. A linear curve was tted
(R
2
T
0:77) through the data. The regression error can
be explained by the fact that this formula (Eq. (10)) is
based on the calculation of an integral, where the
accuracy is directly dependent with the sampling rate.
The larger the sampling rate is, the larger the error will
be. In this research, the minimum sampling rate was
equal to 3.3 s.
When the linear t is forced without intercept, an R
T
2
value of 0.62 is obtained. This supports the physical
background of the model parameter b
i
, as being an
unbiased estimator of the actual local age of air in
ventilated rooms.
4. Conclusions
This paper has proved that a Data-Based Mechanistic
(DBM) approach could be applied to determine the
local mean age of air in a forced ventilated space. Here a
minimally parameterised transfer function model is rst
identied and estimated from the experimental data
without any prior assumptions about the physical
nature of the system. Having objectively identied the
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Fig. 6. Relative error (%) as a function of relative sampling rate, on the determination of the local mean age of air based on the trapezoidal
integration rule ([6]) and the DBM method.
S. Van Buggenhout et al. / Building and Environment 41 (2006) 557567 565
dominant modes of dynamic behaviour in this manner,
the model is then interpreted in physically meaningful
terms; more precisely, the inverse of the model
parameter is equal to the local mean age of air. This
model explains the data very well (average R
2
T
0:987),
with the minimum number of identiable parameters.
The local air refreshment parameter b
i
has proven to be
the inverse of the age of air and good agreement R
2
T

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0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
-6
-4
-2
0
2
4
6
8
Noise Level [%]
R
e
l
a
t
i
v
e

E
r
r
o
r

[
%
]
mean age of air (Sandberg) + confidence intervals
mean age of air (DBM) + confidence intervals
Fig. 7. Mean value (1000 repetitions) of the relative error in function of different levels of noise and corresponding condence intervals for a relative
sampling rate of 1.6%.
0 50 100 150 200 250 300 350 400 450 500
0
50
100
150
200
250
300
350
400
450
500
age numerical [s]
a
g
e

m
o
d
e
l
l
e
d

[
s
]

y = 0.739*x + 80.9
R
t
2
= 0.77
y = 1.03 * x
R
t
2
= 0.62
1
i

i
Fig. 8. XY scatter plot of the numerical versus the modelled age of air for all 6 ventilation rates and 36 positions in the room. The full line represents
a regression curve through the data; the dotted line is the bisector where the modelled value equals the numerical values (integration method).
S. Van Buggenhout et al. / Building and Environment 41 (2006) 557567 566
0:77 was found with the calculation of the age of air by
means of the numerical integral method. Besides being
suitable for controlling purposes, the DBM method for
the determination of the local age of air proved to be
more robust for measurement noise.
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