Air leakage modelling and its influence on the air quality inside a garage

¹ Department of Environmental Engineering, Cracow University of Technology, 24 Warszawska str. 31-155 Krakow, Poland
² Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Cracow University of Technology, 24 Warszawska str. 31-155 Krakow, Poland

^* Corresponding author: nszczepanik@pk.edu.pl

Abstract

The problem of poor air quality due to increased airtightness of dwellings is a growing global problem. What is more, studies have shown that leakages of contaminants from garages occur to the attaching buildings. For these reasons to topic of the study was to see how increased airtightness influenced the air quality of a garage attached to a house and how it affected the contaminant flow into the house. The garage was equipped with an outlet mechanical vent. Three cases were taken under consideration: without any additional sealing, using a gasket on the garage door and using a gasket on both the garage and house door. The results of the study showed that the increased airtightness increases the concentration of contaminants inside the garage as well as the CO₂ concentration flowing into the house. The air flow was disturbed and the contaminants did not flow freely to the outlet causing their dispersion inside of the garage. Such situations may be harmful to human health and should be prevented.