Building Ventilation: Development of a Taxonomy

Abstract: Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the role of ventilation in controlling infection spread and ensuring indoor air quality (IAQ) gained critical attention. The 1918-1920 Spanish flu pandemic, in its day, motivated Robert Boyle (1923) to write his foundational report The Ventilation of Public Buildings. Since that time however, inconsistent and contradictory terminology in building design standards and industry practices globally, has contributed to unnecessary complications. This paper introduces a research study which aims to harmonise ventilation terminology, based on principles of fluid mechanics. This work is key to The Australian Research Council Training Centre for Advanced Building Systems against Airborne Infection Transmission (THRIVE) mission, to engineer advanced building systems that enhance IAQ, mitigate airborne infection transmission, and maintain comfort and energy efficiency. The research categorises ventilation into natural, mechanical, and hybrid strategies. It presents a foundational taxonomy of 32 ventilation types that are commonly used in Australia, linking terminology across a variety of building codes, standards, and guidelines, different disciplines such as architecture and engineering, and academic literature. Of these 32 types, one has been found in academic literature only, and the remaining 31 occur in both types of literature. Harmonising ventilation terminology, and identifying key physical principles like buoyancy, stratification, aerosol physics, and scalar transport (e.g. CO2), provides a unified approach to advance the understanding and application of ventilation strategies, resulting in improved airborne infection control in indoor built environments. Keywords: Active Ventilation, Indoor Air Quality, Thermal Comfort, Building Energy