Research overview

The International Centre for Indoor Environment and Energy will cover a wide range of interdisciplinary research topics connected with the indoor environment, building physics and airflow dynamics. The focus of attention will be on the effect of the indoor environment on humans, bearing in mind that people typically spend 90% of their lives indoors. A poor indoor environment has a negative effect on comfort, health and productivity. To avoid this negative impact, it is essential that buildings be designed to meet basic human requirements for a healthy and comfortable indoor environment while at the same time ensuring low energy consumption. The overall aim of the Centre's research is to aquire new knowledge and integrate and develop design methods that optimize buildings, their systems and their indoor environments. Models predicting the indoor environment and its effect on humans are essential for the designer. Proper models can predict the consequences of different design alternatives and are therefore important for the overall optimization of the building design in terms of the resultant effect on the occupants. The development of such models, applicable for HVAC professionals and the construction industry, is a major aim of the Centre.

Sensory and chemical characterisation of emissions from building materials and HVAC components will provide a basis for the development of models predicting air quality in spaces under a wide range of conditions. Existing knowledge concerning human comfort under homogeneous and steady-state conditions will be expanded to apply for indoor environments in real buildings with transients and thermal inhomogeneities. Emphasis will be on establishing relations between the indoor environment and worker performance. In addition, the effects of combined exposure to the indoor thermal environment, air quality and noise on human comfort, health and productivity will be studied

Airflow in rooms is important with respect to the removal of polluted air and the well-being of occupants. Calculation techniques used to model and predict room air movement have been developed to a level where they can now describe even complex flows in buildings. However, occupant activity, type and location of heat and pollution sources and dynamics of material emissions all cause disturbances of the airflow, which may have crucial effects on the airflow conditions in a room. The Centre's research aims at completing the airflow modelling framework by including these effects and by linking modelling of room air motion with modelling of human response to the indoor environment.

Field observations have shown that the prevalence of symptoms related to the indoor environment is high in damp buildings. Humidity in indoor air or in building materials can increase symptom prevalence. The causes of such humidity will therefore be studied with the aim of proposing acceptable threshold values for humidity levels in buildings and in building components.

Models for transient humidity and temperature conditions of the indoor environment, taking into account the interaction between the building envelope, the interior of buildings and the indoor air, will be developed. Based on such models, it will be possible to implement improved strategies for heating and air-conditioning to minimize symptoms and enhance comfort and productivity in future buildings.

The prediction tools developed in the Centre will be combined to provide a paradigm for the integrated design of buildings that takes into account the indoor environment and its impact on human comfort, health and productivity as well as considerations of energy use and moisture conditions. The paradigm will represent a practical  tool that may be used for the optimized design of buildings.

Last edited: 25 January 1999
Comments to: jt@et.dtu.dk