Quantitative Assessment of Indoor CO₂ Concentration of a Comprehensive Office Building

¹ School of Architecture, Harbin Institute of Technology, China.
² Key Laboratory of Cold Region Urban and Rural Human Settlement Environment Science and Technology, Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, Harbin Institute of Technology, China.

^* Corresponding author: wfang2004@126.com

Abstract

To better understand the extent of different ventilation strategies, a set of multi-zone models of a comprehensive office building in Harbin were conducted based on CONTAMW. The main purpose aims to assess various factors affecting the concentration of indoor CO₂ in real situations by building network models, in order to seek appropriate ventilation control strategies to improve indoor air quality. Firstly, under the combined action of stack effect and wind pressure, the model was verified by field measurement. Secondly, CO₂ concentration peak value, attenuation rate and air exchange rate were analysed in conference rooms on different floors under typical seasons with the doors and windows closed. Moreover, different doors and windows opening schedules of conference rooms were set during the meeting to reduce CO₂ concentration. Results demonstrate that CO₂ concentration in conference rooms are affected by many factors including different climatic parameters, height of building, building envelope leaking characteristics, occupant participated ventilation behaviour etc. and multi-zone simulation analysis shows the necessity of its application at comprehensive building. The study highlights the need for effective guiding significance of ventilation control to reduce the concentration of indoor CO₂ in areas where there are more people indoors in short period of time, which is also meaningful for the personnel health and building design.