Evaluation of the Alberta air infiltration model using measurements and inter-model comparisons

The Alberta air infiltration model (AIM-2) is a simplified single-zone model for predicting building air infiltration rates with a number of salient features. This paper presents an empirical study of this model using measured data from 16 detached houses in Ottawa, Canada. A single-fan depressurization test was first conducted for each house to determine its leakage characteristics. Then, the tracer gas concentration decay technique was employed to measure air infiltration rates under a wide range of weather conditions. The AIM-2 model was used to predict air infiltration rates for each of the 16 houses for the measured weather conditions. These model predictions were then compared with the air infiltration rates determined with the tracer gas tests. Additionally, the predictions of the AIM-2 model were compared with those of another model, the Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory (LBL) model. The AIM-2 model tended to underestimate air infiltration rates but performed better than the LBL model. On average, the AIM-2 model has an error of 19% while the LBL model has an error of 25%. The AIM-2 model requires an estimation of the house's leakage distribution, which may have contributed to some of this disagreement. An attempt was made to use genetic algorithms to reduce the uncertainty caused by estimating these model inputs. (C) 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.