Experimental validation of a CFD-based air quality sensor placement strategy for the localization of indoor source emissions

Abstract

Some woodborers such as termites have harmful effects on the safety of structures. As the woodborers produce some specific Volatile Organic Compounds (VOC), they can be used as an indicator to early detect their presence. Thus, innovative solutions combining gas sensors outputs and Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) are studied to localize indoor source emissions. These strategies can also be applied to localize noxious indoor pollutants like formaldehyde. In this paper, we focus on the optimal placement of air quality sensors in view of localizing a maximum of source emissions on the environment surfaces. We present an adjoint-based numerical strategy taking into account the sensor features such as the Limit Of Detection (LOD). The main contribution of this article is the application of the optimal sensor placement strategy to a real 3D room and its validation by an experimental campaign.