Académique Documents
Professionnel Documents
Culture Documents
Building Ventilation
And Pressurization
As a Security Tool
By Andy Persily, Ph.D., Fellow ASHRAE
For a more complete discussion of ASHRAEs views, see its position paper on homeland
security, Risk Management Guidance for Health, Safety and Environmental Security Under Extraordinary Incidents, at www.ashrae.org/homelandsecurity. Also, the information
presented here may not constitute the opinion of the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.
18
ASHRAE Journal
ashrae.org
September 2004
19
ASHRAE Journal
ashrae.org
tion strategies that should make it easier to determine the airflow required for successful pressurization as a function of
weather conditions, envelope airtightness and building geometry, primarily building height.
Exfiltration
Note that the entry of unfiltered air through envelope leakage can be thought of as a form of filter bypass. Equation 1 is
the mass of contaminant entering from outdoors MC at constant outdoor concentration Cout , outdoor air intake rate Qintake
and envelope infiltration rate Qinf .
Return
(1)
A filter, with efficiency , is located at the outdoor air intake, and P is the penetration factor that accounts for any contaminant losses associated with infiltration (i.e., the building
envelope itself acting as a filter). This equation can be rearranged as shown in Equation 2 (assuming P = 1) and expressed
in terms of Qtotal, which is the total amount of outdoor air entering the building, i.e., Qintake plus Qinf .
(2)
where is the effective filter efficiency based on the value of
Qtotal . Figure 3 depicts the impact of agent entry via infiltration on the value of this overall filtration effectiveness . The
plot shows this effective efficiency of the system vs. the filter
efficiency itself. Again, the effective efficiency on the vertical
September 2004
Supply
ASHRAE Journal
21
100
0.5
QINF /QINT
0
0.1
0.25
1.0
5.0
10
80
60
2.5
One Story
Four Story
20 Story
0.4
40
0.3
1.5
0.2
0.1
0.5
20
0.0
0.0
0
0
0
20
40
60
Effective Filter Efficiency
80
100
10
Figure 3 (left): Impact of infiltration on filtration effectiveness. Figure 4 (right): Airflow needed to achieve 5 Pa pressurization.
with their design values. This makes the need for good system
operation and maintenance, including recommissioning, that
much more important.
Sample Calculations of Infiltration Rates
22
ASHRAE Journal
envelope pressure difference under selected conditions of system operation and weather. An indoor-outdoor pressure difference of 5 Pa (0.02 in. w.g.) was used in this example, but is not
a definitive criterion for successful building pressurization.
Figure 4 is a plot of Q5 the net airflow rate per unit floor area
required to achieve a +5 Pa (+0.02 in. w.g.) pressure inside the
building as a function of the ELA value with no wind and no
indoor-outdoor temperature difference (therefore no stack effect). This net airflow would be the outdoor air intake rate minus
any exhaust or spill airflows. Alternatively, it can be thought of
as the net supply airflow into the building minus any return or
exhaust airflows. As expected, a leakier envelope means more
In general, if the agent is released outdoors, the
objective is to limit its entry into the building. This can be
done through pressurization strategies if the system has
that capability or by reducing the outdoor air intake by
closing dampers or shutting down the system. However,
any of these strategies needs to be developed for the
specific building in question and evaluated as to its
feasibility before being relied upon. If the release occurs
indoors, the objective is to limit its transport beyond the
release location and, if possible, to remove it from the
occupied space by filtration or exhaust. In these
situations, the principles of smoke control systems can
be useful, where exhaust from the release area can
achieve the desired end. Again, the details of how to
implement such an approach are inherently building and
system specific.
The ability of any HVAC-based strategy in limiting
occupant exposure to a CBR agent will depend on the
level of filtration, the envelope airtightness and the system
capabilities. These factors should all be investigated as
part of the planning process, as they will determine the
effectiveness of any such strategy.
A DVD of the satellite broadcast is available at
www.ashrae.org/bookstore.
ashrae.org
September 2004
ELA = 1 cm2/m2
ELA = 10 cm2/m2
p Min., Pa
QINF /QINT
Q for 5 Pa
L/sm2, (cfm/ft2)
T = 0 C, 0 m/s
+19.2
0.21 (0.04)
T = 0 C, 0 m/s
T = 20 C, 5 m/s
+10.4
0.41 (0.08)
T = 20 C, 5 m/s
QINF/QINT
Q for 5 Pa
L/sm2, (cfm/ft2)
+0.6
2.12 (0.42)
8.2
1.29
3.83 (0.75)
p Min., Pa
One-Story
One-Story
Four-Story
Four-Story
T = 0 C, 0 m/s
+19.9
0.21 (0.04)
T = 0 C, 0 m/s
+0.6
2.07 (0.41)
T = 20 C, 5 m/s
+4.8
0.51 (0.10)
T = 20 C, 5 m/s
14.2
1.57
4.79 (0.94)
20-Story
20-Story
T = 0 C, 0 m/s
+68.1
0.10 (0.02)
T = 0 C, 0 m/s
+2.0
0.93 (0.18)
T = 20 C, 5 m/s
+11.3
0.48 (0.09)
T = 20 C, 5 m/s
39.2
1.32
4.02 (0.79)
airflow is required to pressurize the building. The difference between the three
buildings is based primarily on the ratio
of their envelope surface area to their interior volume. Note that for the highest
value of ELA shown in the figure, the net
airflow required to pressurize the building is on the order of 1.5 L/s m2 (0.25
cfm/ft2), which is somewhat higher than
typical minimum outdoor air intake rates
for commercial buildings.
Infiltration rates, envelope pressures
and infiltration-intake ratios were also
calculated for the three buildings under
the following conditions:
Net outdoor air intake equal to 0.5
L/sm2 (0.1 cfm/ft2), based on 10 % of a
supply airflow rate of 5 L/sm2 (1 cfm/ft2);
ELA of 1 cm2/m2 and 10 cm2/m2 (0.01
and 0.14 in.2/ft2);
Indoor-outdoor temperature difference of 0C and 20C (0F and 36F);
and
Wind speed of 0 m/s and 5 m/s (0
mph and 11 mph).
Table 1 shows the results of these calculations for the three buildings. For the
two values of ELA, corresponding to
relatively tight and leaky envelopes, the
first column contains p min. in Pa,
which is the minimum indoor-outdoor
pressure difference calculated on the
building envelope. A positive value indicates that the indoor pressure is higher
than the outdoors at all locations, while
a negative value indicates a lower indoor pressure somewhere on the envelope. The second column for each value
of ELA is the ratio of the infiltration rate
QINF to the outdoor air intake rate QINT,
September 2004
23
Environments from Airborne Chemical, Biological, or Radiological Attacks. National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health.
2. Persily, A. 1999. Myths about building
envelopes. ASHRAE Journal 41(3):3947.
3. 2001 ASHRAE HandbookFundamentals, Chapter 26, Ventilation and Infiltration.
4. Emmerich, S., and A. Persily. 1998.
Energy impacts of infiltration and ventilation
in U.S. office buildings using multizone
airflow simulation. Proceedings of IAQ and Energy 98.
5. 2003. Report of Presidential Ad Hoc Committee for Building Health and Safety Under
Extraordinary Incidents on Risk Management
Guidance for Health, Safety and Environmental Security under Extraordinary Incidents.
24
ASHRAE Journal
ashrae.org
September 2004