The world’s second tallest building, Shanghai Tower, stands at 632 metres tall.
We are proud to announce that Mr. Angus Hodgkiss MPhys, one of our RDDE Team, and Mr David Cao have recently demonstrated our Portascanner® AIRTIGHT at Shanghai Tower with great success. Following this practical testing of the Portascanner® AIRTIGHT, the advanced instrument will be further promoted for the achievement of Passive House levels of airtightness.
Why is airtightness important?
Airtight construction is vital for ensuring energy efficiency, thermal performance, occupant health, safety, and comfort.
Regular airtightness integrity testing helps prevent uncontrolled air leakage which can compromise safety by allowing the rapid spread of fire, smoke, and toxic gases in the case of a fire. Inhaling these toxic gases and smoke that will account for the majority of deaths in a building fire. In day-to-day operations, uncontrolled air leakage increases the risk of airborne diseases affecting occupants and compromises their health. Therefore, ensuring the airtight integrity of fire doors and the wider building structure is imperative for ensuring occupant health and safety.
The same unsealed joints, gaps, and openings that can result in unwanted air particle inhalation can also compromise acoustic insulation, thermal comfort, and energy efficiency. As a result, occupant comfort is undermined. This can also be costly, leading to increased energy bills, reduced productivity, and the pursuit of inefficient or expensive solutions that do not address the root cause.
Airtight Integrity Testing Methods
Identifying, locating, and quantifying air leaks are essential steps in achieving optimal airtightness. However, airtightness is not constant and changes overtime as a result of wear and tare, thermal stress, and other factors. It is therefore important to have a testing method that is reliable and can be used for routine testing.
Traditional airtight integrity testing methods include visual inspection, smoke testing, pressure testing, and dye testing. These are often unreliable, time-consuming, complex, and do not provide quantitative data.
By contrast, ultrasonic testing technologies are designed for reliable and comprehensive airtightness testing. Our Portascanner® AIRTIGHT is an ultrasonic airtightness integrity testing tool that can detect leaks as small as 0.06mm in diameter and quantify leaks as small as 0.5mm in diameter. It is designed to be used without the requirement to vacate the building and for ease of use, being lightweight, ergonomic, handheld, and battery powered. As a result, it can be used in a wide variety of buildings, including the world’s second tallest, with minimal disruption.
The Portascanner® AIRTIGHT is a world-first instrument that is able to:
- Non-disruptively identify leak sites with a microscopic level of accuracy
- Measure and quantify a cross-sectional area
- Determine the air flow rate through each leak under any range of conditions using sophisticated algorithms
- Calculate a room’s overall air permeability and Air Changes Per Hour (ACH)
- Store photographic and quantitative data to generate traceable, exportable reports
Conclusion
Frequent and regular detection, location, and quantification of unwanted air leaks, integrated alongside existing airtightness testing equipment ensures the success of building ventilation strategies, to generate pathogen free air for the occupants inside. Thereby ensuring the safety and comfort of occupants and saving on expensive energy bills in the long-term.
Should you wish to learn more about Passive House, Airtightness, or our ultrasonic instrumentation, a member of our team would be delighted to assist you.
