International Space Station astronaut Ron Garan looking back at Earth. (NASA)

Speakers:

IAQ in Space Habitat: The Ultimate Challenge

R. Vijayakumar, PhD, Consultant in Chief, AERFIL

Extra terrestrial manned exploration poses many immense challenges and opportunities. Key among them will to maintain acceptable indoor air and environmental quality. Although no specific mission has been scheduled, NASA and others are working on several solutions to these problems. In this presentation, the author will present a brief on the challenges in designing systems for space IAQ, and specifically discuss the technology he has been developing for NASA.

Filtering Air Filters: Development of an Improved Method for Testing the Performance of Filter Media that Remove Gases from Indoor Air

Chuan He, PhD Candidate, Building Energy Environmental System Laboratory (BEESL), Syracuse University

Predicting the actual performance of filter media commonly used to remove gases in air cleaners is challenging due to low concentrations of contaminants that are typically found in indoor environments. The procedure specified in ASHRAE Standard 145.1 addresses these challenges by conducting tests of filter media at elevated gas concentrations. This approach is useful for comparing the performance of different media, but it cannot directly represent the performance of air cleaners in typical indoor environments. A new method was developed to determine filter media performance under low concentrations. Results show that the new test method can dramatically reduce test times and the approach can be applied to predict the media performance in real-life applications with sufficient accuracy.

Bios: 

R. Vijayakumar is the founder and head of AERFIL, a consulting company devoted to providing technical and business solutions and services for the filtration and contamination control industry, as well as educational and training support for the industry. His current clients include major filtration companies in China, Brazil and India. With several patents and over 30 years' experience in leading filtration and particle test instrument companies to go with his PhD in particle technology, Vijayakumar is a globally recognized expert and mentor in contamination control and filtration sought after by clients world wide. He is an advisor to NASA for air filtration systems for space habitat. In keeping with his philosophy that knowledge grows only by sharing, he teaches freely and often wherever someone wants to learn the subject. He has been on the faculty of the short course on air and gas filtration at the University of Minnesota since its inception and is a Distinguished Visiting Professor at the Chinese Academy of Building Research. He has taught courses in cleanroom designs for ASHRAE, and is a Distinguished Lecturer for them lecturing around the world on various aspects of filtration and cleanroom designs. He has recently published an eBook on Aerosol Mechanics for the general user. He has served as the President of the IEST, the premiere contamination control organization in the US. Currently, he chairs standards development committees at the ISO and in the US writing standards for high efficiency filtration and filter media used in cleanrooms, hospitals, and indoor environments.

 

Chuan He is a PhD candidate at Syracuse University and a Research Assistant at the Building Energy Environmental System Laboratory (BEESL), Syracuse University.

 

 

 

 

This forum will be moderated by Dr. Chetna Chianese, Associate Director of Research, SyracuseCoE.