Experimental insights into the airtightness measurement of a house-sized chamber in a sheltered environment using blower door and pulse methods

Zheng, Xiaofeng; Cooper, Edward; Mazzon, Joe; Wallis, Ian; Wood, Christopher

Abstract

This paper introduces a comparison study of measuring the airtightness of a house-sized test chamber using the novel pulse technique and a low range blower door method in a sheltered environment. Eight different testing plates were prepared and applied to the improvised envelope of the chamber to establish different leakage characteristics. Each testing plate has a unique opening in its centre, achieved by obtaining different combinations of shape and thickness of the opening. By using the sheltered environment, the vagaries of the natural condition when testing within buildings have been reduced providing a more robust testing environment. This investigation focuses on how the air leakage rate calculated from the measurements made by both techniques compare with each other. Comparable results (0-5.3%) under most scenarios have been obtained. Larger discrepancies (14.6% and 21.8%) were observed in the two airtight scenarios due to insufficient pressure range achieved in a standard pulse test. This finding guided further improvement on the testing performance. Further pulse tests under different scenarios, involving the use of an internal barrier and various location of the pulse unit were also performed to investigate the uniform pressure distribution and resilience to external interferences. It showed the internal barrier and location had minor impact (1.62% to 4.65%) on the test results.

Citation

Zheng, X., Cooper, E., Mazzon, J., Wallis, I., & Wood, C. (2019). Experimental insights into the airtightness measurement of a house-sized chamber in a sheltered environment using blower door and pulse methods. Building and Environment, 162, Article 106269. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.buildenv.2019.106269

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Jul 5, 2019
• Online Publication Date: Jul 8, 2019
• Publication Date: Sep 1, 2019
• Deposit Date: Jul 5, 2019
• Publicly Available Date: Jul 9, 2020
• Journal: Building and Environment
• Print ISSN: 0360-1323
• Electronic ISSN: 1873-684X
• Publisher: Elsevier
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 162
• Article Number: 106269
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.buildenv.2019.106269
• Keywords: Building airtightness, Blower door, Pulse, Sheltered environment
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/2273722
• Publisher URL: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0360132319304792
• Additional Information: This article is maintained by: Elsevier; Article Title: Experimental insights into the airtightness measurement of a house-sized chamber in a sheltered environment using blower door and pulse methods; Journal Title: Building and Environment; CrossRef DOI link to publisher maintained version: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.buildenv.2019.106269; Content Type: article; Copyright: © 2019 Published by Elsevier Ltd.
• Contract Date: Jul 11, 2019