Impact of two-way air flow due to temperature difference on preventing the entry of outdoor particles using indoor positive pressure control method

Maintaining positive pressure indoors using mechanical ventilation system is a popular control method for preventing the entry of outdoor airborne particles. The idea is, as long as the supply air flow rate is larger than return air flow rate, the pressure inside the ventilated room should be positive since the superfluous air flow must exfiltrate from air leakages or other openings of the room to the outdoors. Based on experimental and theoretical analyses this paper aims to show the impact of two-way air flow due to indoor/outdoor temperature difference on preventing the entry of outdoor particles using positive pressure control method. The indoor positive pressure control method is effective only when the size of the opening area is restricted to a certain level, opening degree less than 30° in this study, due to the two-way air flow effect induced by differential temperature. The theoretical model was validated using the experimental data. The impacts of two-way air flow due to temperature difference and the supply air flow rate were also analyzed using the theoretical model as well as experimental data. For real houses, it seems that the idea about the positive pressure control method for preventing the entry of outdoor particles has a blind side.