IRINA (Innovative Room for INdoor Air studies) experimental room

The large-volume (40m3) IRINA, which stands for Innovative Room for INdoor Air studies, enables the controlled reproduction, in the laboratory, of real-life indoor air conditions on a 1:1 scale.

 The key parameters of its functioning have been optimized and validated (pollutant-wall interaction, pollutant white levels, air flow, pollutant homogenization). IRINA provides an adjustable air change rate of between 0.3 and 10 h-1 in order to reproduce a wide range of types of indoor environments. It is equipped with gas and particulate pollutant generators permitting reproduction of multi-pollution episodes, both on a one-off basis or continuously. From an analytical point of view, IRINA is equipped with 4 to 10 networks of micro-sensors to continuously monitor temperature, relative humidity and CO2 content. Several analytical instruments can be combined with IRINA, such as: 3 gas chromatographs (2 compact-GC and 1 ATD-GC-FID+MS), 2 chemical ionization mass spectrometers (SIFT-MS), 1 specific formaldehyde analyzer, 1 ozone analyzer, 1 NOx analyzer, 1 granulometer (MiniWRAS). An olfactory atmospheric sampler is also connected to IRINA enabling sensory evaluation of the indoor air contained in IRINA.

The experimental room can be naturally lit or totally insulated from sunlight. It also includes wind speed sensors for aeraulic characterization, as well as wattmeters to provide information of the electrical consumption of the featured systems. It also houses a multi-instrumented thermal manikin (MONICA) facilitating the study of the influence of the human thermal plume on dispersion of pollutants on the scale of a room.

IRINA is a 1:1 scale system permitting provision of information on the physical chemistry of indoor air and particularly the fate of pollutants. It is particularly suited to development and evaluation of indoor air quality improvement devices and strategies. Finally, the IRINA experimental room is an interdisciplinary meeting point at the interface between aeraulics, heat science and physical chemistry; it therefore enables the production of 1:1-scale experimental data for indoor environmental modeling.