Mechanochemical Synthesis of CPM‐5: A Green Method

The development of green technologies for the manufacture of various materials is considered as one of the approaches to address some of the environmental issues of commercializing new materials. A mechanochemical (MC) method is developed to synthesize crystalline porous material‐5 (CPM‐5). The effect of different mechanical parameters, including oscillation frequency and time and the number of metal balls used for milling is studied. Results revealed that CPM‐5 crystals are successfully formed under optimized conditions. It was noted that the thermal treatment of the samples after grinding is very crucial for the formation of CPM‐5 under the studied conditions. Moreover, washing of samples with a 1:1 solution of dimethylformamide (DMF):H₂O remarkably enhanced the surface area of the final product.     

A systematic procedure to study the influence of occupant behavior on building energy consumption

Efforts have been devoted to the identification of the impacts of occupant behavior on building energy consumption. Various factors influence building energy consumption at the same time, leading to the lack of precision when identifying the individual effects of occupant behavior. This paper reports the development of a new methodology for examining the influences of occupant behavior on building energy consumption; the method is based on a basic data mining technique (cluster analysis). To deal with data inconsistencies, min-max normalization is performed as a data preprocessing step before clustering. Grey relational grades, a measure of relevancy between two factors, are used as weighted coefficients of different attributes in cluster analysis. To demonstrate the applicability of the proposed method, the method was applied to a set of residential buildings’ measurement data. The results show that the method facilitates the evaluation of building energy-saving potential by improving the behavior of building occupants, and provides multifaceted insights into building energy end-use patterns associated with the occupant behavior. The results obtained could help prioritize efforts at modification of occupant behavior in order to reduce building energy consumption, and help improve modeling of occupant behavior in numerical simulation.     

Measuring chemical emissions from wet products--development of a new measurement technique

A new approach for estimating chemical emissions from wet products has been developed. The concept of such approach is that emission rates can be estimated from the amount of target chemicals in the product as a function of evaporation time. Samples were placed under a laboratory fume hood under controlled conditions (surface air velocity and temperature). Weight losses of the product were monitored and residuals at different time intervals were chemically analyzed. Emission factors of the target chemicals were then calculated based on the weight losses and residual levels of the chemicals. To demonstrate the applicability of this approach, two wet products with very different physical characteristics, one liquid and one paste-like viscous fluid, were chosen. Emissions of two principle chemicals in the products, decamethylcyclopentasiloxane (D5), and dodecamethylcyclohexasiloxane (D6) were measured. The influences of initial sample weight, surface air velocity, and temperature were investigated. The calculated emission profiles were compared with those obtained from the chamber method. The described approach could be used as an alternative screening method for emission tests of wet products, especially for compounds with low vapour pressure when sink effect poses serious challenge in traditional chamber-based emission tests.     

Impact of non-uniform urban surface temperature on pollution dispersion in urban areas

Airflow pattern through street canyons has been widely studied to understand the nature of pollution dispersion in order to develop guidelines for urban planners. One of the major contributing parameters in pollution dispersion is thermal-induced flow caused by surface and air temperature difference. However, most of the previous studies assumed isothermal condition for street canyons. Those addressed the thermal-induced flow, have assumed a uniform wall surface temperature distribution. The external building wall surface temperature distribution is not uniform, and is influenced by many factors including the wall surface characteristics, and shading. The non-uniform temperature distribution significantly impacts on 3-dimensional airflow within street canyons. Moreover, effect of intersection is barely considered in the literature where L/H<3 (L and H are respectively length and height of street canyon). This Paper reports the development of a 3-dimensional model to study the effect of non-uniform wall surface temperature distribution on the pollution dispersion and flow pattern within the short street canyons (L/H<3). For this purpose, a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model is developed to investigate these effects on pollution dispersion in various prevailing wind velocities and directions. Moreover, active and passive techniques to reduce the level of concentration are examined. The study clearly shows that thermal-induced flow dominates during fair-weather condition.     

A Comprehensive Validation of Two Airflow Models — COMIS and CONTAM

Abstract Several airflow and contaminant dispersion models have been developed to study air distribution in buildings. This paper reports the results of a comprehensive validation of two models: COMIS and CONTAM. The validation process was carried out at three different levels; inter-program comparison; validation with experimental data which was collected in a controlled environment; and finally, validation with field measurement data. At the inter-program level, the airflow rates and pressure values predicted by COMIS and CONTAM for a four-zone paper building were compared with the airflow rates and pressures predicted by CBSAIR, AIRNET and BUS. The results show good agreement between these software programs. The second level of validation compares the models’ predictions with measured data collected in a controlled environment. Fan pressurisation, smoke and tracer gas tests were conducted to estimate the permeability of building envelope components, to locate cracks, and to determine the interzonal airflow rates between rooms. The results confirm that there is good agreement between predictions made by COMIS and CONTAM; there are, however, some differences between these models’ predictions and the measured data. The predictions made by these models were also compared with the results of a tracer gas measurement carried out in a residential building. The predicted and measured values were in good agreement.     

Use of Two-Phase Pseudo Pressure Method to Calculate Condensate Bank Size and Well Deliverability in Gas Condensate Reservoirs

This paper introduces a novel approach in the use of two-phase pseudo pressures for the calculation of condensate bank radius and productivity index of wells and the interpretation of gas condensate well test data. It is shown that knowledge of the relationship between condensate saturation and pressure is necessary for the integration of pseudo pressure in all regions of the reservoir. In the region of the reservoir where immobile condensate saturation develops, an equation that is valid for the region far from the wellbore has been used. While for the region where condensate is considered to be mobile, an equation has been used based on the steady state method. This method is tested using a data set that was generated by a compositional simulator for radial homogenous. A set of real PVT data from a producing gas condensate field is used for simulation of the gas condensate reservoir. Using this approach, it is possible to calculate condensate bank radius and total skin, mechanical skin, and permeability of the reservoir, yielding answers that are extremely close to those of the simulator. It is also shown that the condensate saturation profile in the reservoir produced using this method is also similar to the one produced by the simulator. An inflow performance curve is calculated using two-phase pseudo pressures. In this curve, the impact of the presence of condensate around the wellbore on productivity is studied.     

Modeling ventilated double skin façade—A zonal approach

This article presents the application of the zonal approach for modeling airflow and temperature in a ventilated double skin facades (DSF). The zonal airflow equation, power-law, was employed to calculate the airflow through the shading device and cavities. The zonal energy equation was used to evaluate the temperature distribution in the DSF system. The predicted temperature distributions were verified using measured values and parametric studies were conducted to identify the influence of height, flow rate and presence of venetian blinds on the inlet–outlet temperature difference. The influence of changing the values of each parameter was found to be more apparent during the day than during the night. The inlet–outlet temperature difference increased as height of the DSF increased and when venetian blinds were installed but it was found to decrease as the airflow rate increased. The results had revealed that the zonal approach can be employed to provide information on the performance of DSF faster and at very low computational resource.     

CFD Simulation and Modeling of Membrane‐Assisted Separation of Organic Compounds from Wastewater

The extraction of volatile organic compounds (VOC) from water in porous hollow fibers was simulated with toluene, a hazardous material. The system to be simulated included a VOC stream and air as stripping gas, which were contacted using a porous hollow‐fiber membrane contactor. To model the process, the contactor was considered as three compartments, including shell side, porous membrane, and tube side. The model equations were derived and solved using computational fluid dynamics of momentum and mass transfer in all zones of the contactor. The profiles of concentration and pressure were obtained for the VOC in the hollow fibers.     

Poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene):Poly(styrenesulfonic Acid) (PEDOT:PSS) Conductivity Enhancement through Addition of Imidazolium-Ionic Liquid Derivatives

Here, insignificant conductivity enhancement of PEDOT:PSS through adding different amounts of 2-methylimidazolium ionic liquids into PEDOT:PSS aqueous solutions is reported. Maximum conductivity was reached through 2-methylimidazolium hydrogen sulfate (5 wt.%) addition. It seems that observed conductivity enhancement mainly results from the impact of ionic liquids on the electrical properties and conformational change of PEDOT chains, and through weakening of the electrostatic interactions between PEDOT and PSS. Also, better conductivity was achieved through weak interactions between PEDOT and the PSS chain, which changes the PEDOT conformation and further delocalizes the polarons, as well as changes the electron transport properties.