Air leakage measurements of the exterior walls of tall buildings

This paper describes an experimental procedure for determining the air leakage characteristics of the exterior walls of buildings. The technique consists in pressurizing the building with the supply air system and recording the supply air flow rate and the resultant pressure differentials across the walls. The study of the results obtained makes it possible to establish an air flow coefficient and exponent for exterior walls. By applying this method to air flow rates and pressure differentials obtained using a computer-simulated building, it is possible to verify the procedure and confirm that the results obtained correlate closely with air flow characteristics used in the simulation. The air leakage properties of the exterior walls of four buildings, determined using this method, are also presented.Le pr\ue9sent expos\ue9 d\ue9crit une m\ue9thode exp\ue9rimentale, concue dans le but de d\ue9terminer les caract\ue9ristiques de fuite d'air des murs ext\ue9rieurs d'un \ue9difice. Cette m\ue9thode consiste \ue0 mettre l'\ue9difice sous pression au moyen du syst\ue8me d'alimentation en air et \ue0 mesurer les d\ue9bits de l'air provenant de l'ext\ue9rieur et les diff\ue9rentielles de pression qui en r\ue9sultent le long des murs. L'\ue9tude des r\ue9sultats obtenus permet d'\ue9tablir un coefficient et un exposant de l'\ue9coulement d'air pour les murs ext\ue9rieurs. L'application de cette m\ue9thode aux d\ue9bits d'air et aux diff\ue9rentielles de pression obtenus d'un mod\ue8le informatique simulant un \ue9difice permet de v\ue9rifier le proc\ue9d\ue9 et de constater que les r\ue9sultats obtenus concordent bien avec les caract\ue9ristiques de fuite d'air utilis\ue9es dans la simulation. Les propri\ue9t\ue9s d'\ue9tanch\ue9it\ue9 \ue0 l'air des murs ext\ue9rieurs de quatre \ue9difices, \ue9valu\ue9es au moyen de la pr\ue9sente m\ue9thode, sont \ue9galement pr\ue9sent\ue9es.Also presented at the 1973 ASHRAE Spring Conference, Louisville, KY, USA, June 24-28, 1973 and the 1st AIC Conference, Berkshire, UK, October 10, 1980Peer reviewed: YesNRC publication: Ye