School ventilation and indoor environment quality

Children are a particularly vulnerable section of society. They are physiologically less able to regulate their temperature and are more vulnerable to exposure to air pollution than adults. This project aims to investigate the indoor environmental quality associate with ventilation at schools. Natural ventilation is often considered to be the most energy-efficient and sustainable solution for ventilating a building, with the potential to reduce the energy cost required for air conditioning. Adequate ventilation within a building is necessary to maintain children’ health and comfort. The project aims to conduct the field surveys at the primary schools located in city and suburban areas during a full academic year. Physical measurements of the indoor and outdoor environment will be carried out in each school through the measurement of CO2, air temperature, air velocity, humidity and particulates concentration. The project will investigate the impact of outdoor pollutions and noise on the capacity of ventilation rates.  Control strategies will be proposed based on the data analysis and simulations. The results will be used to assess the suitability of current ventilation strategies for classrooms and to develop new guidelines for the ventilation of school buildings in the UK.

Applicants should have a minimum of a 2.1 honours degree (or equivalent) and Preferably a Master’s degree in Engineering / Computing/ applied mathematics or a relevant discipline.