Department of Building Environment and Energy Engineering, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong, China.
Department of Mechanical Engineering, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong, China.
Sensors (Basel). 2023 Apr 12;23(8):3920. doi: 10.3390/s23083920.
Current IoT applications in indoor air focus mainly on general monitoring. This study proposed a novel IoT application to evaluate airflow patterns and ventilation performance using tracer gas. The tracer gas is a surrogate for small-size particles and bioaerosols and is used in dispersion and ventilation studies. Prevalent commercial tracer-gas-measuring instruments, although highly accurate, are relatively expensive, have a long sampling cycle, and are limited in the number of sampling points. To enhance the spatial and temporal understanding of tracer gas dispersion under the influence of ventilation, a novel application of an IoT-enabled, wireless R134a sensing network using commercially available small sensors was proposed. The system has a detection range of 5-100 ppm and a sampling cycle of 10 s. Using Wi-Fi communication, the measurement data are transmitted to and stored in a cloud database for remote, real-time analysis. The novel system provides a quick response, detailed spatial and temporal profiles of the tracer gas level, and a comparable air change rate analysis. With multiple units deployed as a wireless sensing network, the system can be applied as an affordable alternative to traditional tracer gas systems to identify the dispersion pathway of the tracer gas and the general airflow direction.
目前物联网在室内空气的应用主要集中在一般监测上。本研究提出了一种新的物联网应用，使用示踪气体来评估气流模式和通风性能。示踪气体是小尺寸颗粒和生物气溶胶的替代品，用于扩散和通风研究。虽然流行的商业示踪气体测量仪器非常准确，但价格相对较高，采样周期较长，并且采样点数量有限。为了增强在通风影响下对示踪气体扩散的时空理解，提出了一种使用商业上可用的小型传感器的物联网支持的、无线 R134a 感应网络的新应用。该系统的检测范围为 5-100ppm，采样周期为 10 秒。通过 Wi-Fi 通信，测量数据被传输并存储在云数据库中，以便进行远程实时分析。该新型系统提供了快速响应、示踪气体水平的详细时空分布以及可比的空气交换率分析。通过部署多个作为无线感应网络的单元，该系统可以作为传统示踪气体系统的经济替代方案，用于识别示踪气体的扩散路径和一般气流方向。
