HVAC Operation: Impact on Indoor Chemistry, Microbiology, and Overall Air Quality

Event Date: January 25, 2024
Speaker: Atila Novoselac
Time: 1:30PM-3:00PM
Location: HLAB 2061
Priority: No
College Calendar: Show
Atila Novoselac, Professor and Associate Chair in Architectural Engineering and holder of Josey Centennial Professorship in Energy Resources in the Maseeh Department of Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering at the University of Texas at Austin.

 

Bio: Dr. Novoselac is Professor and Associate Chair in Architectural Engineering and holder of Josey Centennial Professorship in Energy Resources in the Maseeh Department of Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering at the University of Texas at Austin. He holds B.S. and M.S. degrees in Mechanical Engineering from Belgrade University and in 2005 received his PhD in Architectural Engineering from the Pennsylvania State University. The goal of Dr. Novoselac’s research is to improve buildings with respect to their impact on occupants’ health and overall energy performance. He conducts both fundamental and applied research that leads to healthy and efficient buildings. Specifically, his work focuses on: (1) investigating transport phenomena in buildings that influence human exposure to airborne pollutants and pathogens, and (2) developing methods to improve the thermal characteristics and energy performance of building systems. His research is multidisciplinary and internationally recognized. For four years he has been a member of a multidisciplinary team of microbiologists, medical scientists, and engineers that in the Amazon basin collected data that helped to determine how human urbanization shaped the microbes of built environments. Recently, he hosted in his lab the HOMEChem (House Observations of Microbial and Environmental Chemistry) event, which was the world largest indoor air quality experiment incorporating measurements from 60 researchers from 13 universities to identify the most important aspects of the chemistry that controls the indoor environment. He is a member of the Academy of Fellows of the International Society of Indoor Air Quality and Climate (ISIAQ) and an active member of the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning (ASHRAE). As a chair or voting member on several of ASHRAE’s technical committees, he is contributing to developing/advancing building codes and standards. Beside fellowships and awards, his research and advising work has been well recognized in academia as almost all his PhD students have received prestigious positions at universities with top programs in building energy and environment related fields.

 
Abstract: For more than 30 years, indoor air quality has been a field that integrated various disciplines and in which a lot of new knowledge has been generated; the research in this field significantly accelerated during the last 12 years with the large investment from Alfred P Sloan Foundation in fundamental research related to indoor microbiology (Microbiology of the Built Environment) and chemistry (Chemistry of Indoor Environments). Most of these recent research studies show that human activities in buildings are triggers for many complex biological and chemical processes and these processes are impacted by heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC). As most modern buildings have some form of HVAC system, the HVAC operation drives many of the heat and mass transport phenomena in buildings, which further impact biological and chemical processes in the air and on interior surfaces, as well as indoor exposure to pollutants formed in these processes. In this talk, Prof. Novoselac will provide an overview of HVAC operation factors and transport phenomena that impact generation, emission, and dispersion of a set of chemical and biological pollutants. Furthermore, he will provide examples that illustrate how standard HVAC components and common building operation can generate very complex and unintended consequences when considering exposure to chemicals or biological aerosols. The talk will also demonstrate the importance of collaboration between HVAC/building engineers and researchers from different science disciplines. The talk will conclude with highlighting the future research directions and challenges.