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. 2021 Sep 10;15(5):831–844. doi: 10.1007/s12273-021-0827-2

Experimental and numerical investigation of TVOC concentrations and ventilation dilution in enclosed train cabin

Le Zhao 1, Huang Zhou 1, Yuzhen Jin 1,✉, Zeqing Li 2
PMCID: PMC8432275  PMID: 34522289

Abstract

Air pollution in trains is an important factor threatening human health, which has attracted more and more attention in the worldwide public health researches. In this study, one cabin of a fully enclosed train was taken as an example to conduct experimental and numerical research on pollution level and distribution characteristic of total volatile organic compound (TVOC). The results show that when the average emission rate under daily environmental conditions was taken as the reference, TVOC concentration in the cabin exceeded the limit level of Chinese Indoor Air Quality Standard by more than 4 times. The obvious pollutants accumulative phenomenon could be found at bottoms and corners under the action of airflow. Setting air inlets at the roof of the train, mean age of air ranged from 30 s to 50 s in the breathing area. The concentration of pollutants was the lowest at 2.5–5 m from the center point of the cabin structure, and the ventilation efficiency was the highest. The introduction of clean fresh air could effectively eliminate pollutants. When the complete displacement ventilation rates were 51.4 h−1 and 28.6 h−1, the removal efficiency of pollutants was about 0.85 and 0.48 mg/m3 per minute, respectively. This study was helpful to the improvement and optimization design of air quality and ventilation mode in trains.

Keywords: indoor air quality, VOCs, CFD, railway cabins, ventilation dilution

Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the Key Research and Development Program of Zhejiang Province (No. 2019C 03117).

List of symbols

Ainlet

air inlets areas (m2)

Aoutlet

air outlets areas (m2)

ACH

air changes per hour (h−1)

C0

initial concentration of TVOC in material (µg/m3)

Ca

contaminant concentration in air (mg/m3)

Cinlet

inflow TVOC concentrations (mg/m3)

Coutlet

outflow TVOC concentrations (mg/m3)

CFD

computational fluid dynamics

CRH

China railway high-speed

Da

TVOC diffusion coefficient in air (m2/s)

Dm

diffusion coefficient (m2/s)

E(t)

emission rate factor (µg/(m2·h))

f

fresh air ratio (%)

IAQ

indoor air quality

K

partition coefficient between materials and air

Q

ventilation volume (m3/h)

Sc

turbulent Schmidt number

Sφ

source term

TVOC

total volatile organic compound

t

time (s or h)

Uinlet

inlet air velocities (m/s)

Uoutlet

outlet air velocities (m/s)

uj

air convective velocity (m/s)

V

volume of the environment cabin (1 m3)

VOCs

volatile organic compounds

W

time for a complete dilution pollutant (s)

x

one dimensional coordinate (m)

Γφ

diffusion coefficient

δ

material thickness (m)

εA

pollution removal ability of air distribution system

νt

turbulent kinematic viscosity (m2/s)

ρ

density (kg/m3)

τn

nominal time constant (s)

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