Refined assessment and comparison of airtightness measurement of an indoor chamber using the blower door and Pulse methods

ZHENG, XIAOFENG; Smith, Luke; Moring, Adam; Wood, Christopher

Abstract

Previous studies have compared the airtightness measurement of test enclosures utilising both the novel Pulse technique and the conventional blower door method. Discrepancies between results of the two test methods were observed and it was concluded that differences either caused by wind or blower door installation integrity would have had an impact upon the results. This study, as a continued investigation as well as validation process for product development, reports on an experimental investigation that assesses the airtightness of an indoor chamber using both the blower door and Pulse methods with the envelope difference and wind impact being minimized. This was achieved by utilising two door-sized rigid panels to replace the existing door of an indoor chamber in the setup of the blower door and Pulse units. The blower door fan was located within one of these solid panels, which then negated any impact of leakage around the frame. A wooden plate with multiple openings was utilised and mounted in the chamber envelope to provide various leakage levels and characteristics for testing by taping up different number of openings, in which airtightness tests were performed using both methods in an overlapped pressure range. This allowed both methods to be compared directly with minimum difference in testing conditions. Tests were also carried out in a house-sized indoor chamber to assess the repeatability of the Pulse unit and its agreement with the blower door test. The initial results showed that in the most of the testing scenarios a good agreement (up to 7.4%) was observed between the leakage results given by both methods; however a larger discrepancy was seen in the case where the largest opening was present. A good test repeatability was observed in the Pulse test, which also showed a similar agreement with the blower door test with the tests undertaken in the small chamber.

Citation

ZHENG, X., Smith, L., Moring, A., & Wood, C. (2019, October). Refined assessment and comparison of airtightness measurement of an indoor chamber using the blower door and Pulse methods. Presented at 40th AIVC - 8th TightVent - 6th venticool Conference, Ghent, Belgium

• Presentation Conference Type: Conference Paper (published)
• Conference Name: 40th AIVC - 8th TightVent - 6th venticool Conference
• Start Date: Oct 15, 2019
• End Date: Oct 16, 2019
• Acceptance Date: Aug 30, 2019
• Online Publication Date: Oct 15, 2019
• Publication Date: Oct 15, 2019
• Deposit Date: May 5, 2020
• Book Title: The Proceedings of the 40th AIVC - 8th TightVent - 6th venticool Conference: "From energy crisis to sustainable indoor climate - 40 years of AIVC"
• Keywords: Building airtightness; Blower door; PULSE;Sheltered environment
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/4383805
• Publisher URL: https://www.aivc.org/resource/refined-assessment-and-comparison-airtightness-measurement-indoor-chambers-using-blower?volume=38539