New developments on indoor air quality research

New developments on indoor air quality (IAQ) are discussed for this presentation. Today,indoor air is mainly contaminated by two major routes, they are biological airborne pathogensand chemical volatile organic compounds (VOCs). Thus, research on securing air that is safeand sound for breathing is essential. Due to warmth and humidity, airborne pathogens are welladapted to such conditions and can proliferate in large amount that become health hazardous.Biological control methods for IAQ involving hygienic measures are discussed. Benzene,formaldehyde, toluene are carcinogenic volatile organic compounds which can be found inindoor environment such as new paint, new furniture and printing machines. Chemical controlmethods for IAQ involving covering paint and furniture with non-carcinogenic coatingmaterial that prevents VOCs emission are discussed. Since most indoor environment areenclosures comforted with heating, ventilation and air conditioning systems (HVACs), aventilation mode must be chosen for implementation in order to maintain air that is healthy tobreath in an indoor environment. Currently available ventilation modes such as mixingventilation, displacement ventilation, task/personalized ventilation and most recently stratumventilation are presented. Because carbon dioxide concentration and air age are goodindicators for IAQ and high concentration of carbon dioxide can cause drowsiness effect onbuilding occupants, ventilation rate must be maintained at a level that can provide anacceptable indoor carbon dioxide concentration level. Literature that provided optimal level ofventilation rate for removing excessive indoor carbon dioxide that satisfies statutoryregulation as well as energy saving criterion are documented. Finally, numerical studies onapplying different ventilation modes for diluting indoor air with fresher outdoor air aredetailed. Turbulence modeling and numerical methods that solve the turbulence governingequations are addressed. © 2008 by Nova Science Publishers, Inc. All rights reserved.