IAQ in Space Habitat: The Ultimate Challenge
R. Vijayakumar, PhD, Consultant in Chief, AERFIL
Extra terrestrial manned exploration poses many immense challenges and opportunities. Key among them will to maintain acceptable indoor air and environmental quality. Although no specific mission has been scheduled, NASA and others are working on several solutions to these problems. In this presentation, the author will present a brief on the challenges in designing systems for space IAQ, and specifically discuss the technology he has been developing for NASA.
Filtering Air Filters: Development of an Improved Method for Testing the Performance of Filter Media that Remove Gases from Indoor Air
Chuan He, PhD Candidate, Building Energy Environmental System Laboratory (BEESL), Syracuse University
Predicting the actual performance of filter media commonly used to remove gases in air cleaners is challenging due to low concentrations of contaminants that are typically found in indoor environments. The procedure specified in ASHRAE Standard 145.1 addresses these challenges by conducting tests of filter media at elevated gas concentrations. This approach is useful for comparing the performance of different media, but it cannot directly represent the performance of air cleaners in typical indoor environments. A new method was developed to determine filter media performance under low concentrations. Results show that the new test method can dramatically reduce test times and the approach can be applied to predict the media performance in real-life applications with sufficient accuracy.