Ricerc@Sapienza

Evaluation of pollutant exposure and concentration peaks to which individuals are subjected in confined environments is a fundamental issue particularly in urban areas, where air pollution is due to both internal and external sources. In this work, concentration fields of indoor pollutants within a classroom of the University of Rome “La Sapienza” were numerically and experimentally investigated in the framework of the VIEPI project (Integrated Evaluation of Indoor Particulate Exposure).

Reducing indoor particulate matter (PM) concentration is an issue of concern from an environmental point of view as the world's population spend only 4% of their time outdoors. Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) is a fundamental tool for predicting indoor pollutant dispersion and improving knowledge on how indoor and outdoor environments interact in terms of pollutant and momentum exchanges. In this paper, an unsteady CFD simulation has been carried out to investigate the airflow and PM concentration in a classroom of the University of Rome "La Sapienza".