The FLEC® has been validated and used in research for many years.
Below is a publication list of journal articles, abstracts, poster or oral presentations where the FLEC or CHEMATEC’s other products have been in focus.
If you have anything that can be added to the list, we encourage you to contact CHEMATEC.
2016 |
Rizk, Malak; Verriele, Marie; Mendez, Maxence; Blond, Nadège; Dusanter, Sébastien; Schoemaecker, Coralie; Blondeau, Patrice; Calvé, Stéphane Le; Locoge, Nadine Fast sorption measurements of VOCs on building materials: Part 2 – Comparison between FLEC and CLIMPAQ methods Journal Article In: Building and Environment, vol. 99, pp. 239 - 251, 2016, ISSN: 0360-1323. Abstract | Links | BibTeX | Tags: Building materials, CLIMPAQ, FLEC, Indoor air quality, Model, Sorption @article{RIZK2016239,A new method was developed to measure on the field VOC sorption coefficients (ka; kd) on the surface of a material by coupling a Field and Laboratory Emission Cell (FLEC) to a Proton Transfer Reaction-Mass Spectrometer (PTR-MS) as presented in the first part of this study. In this second part, the method is compared to the classical method based on a CLIMPAQ chamber coupled to an on-line GC analyzer. Different models were used to determine the sorption parameters from experimental data taking into account the sink effect on empty chamber walls and the presence of a boundary-layer. Determined sorption equilibrium coefficients Ke (ka/kd) for a mixture of BTEX on a gypsum board was found to be in good agreement between both methods. However, the CLIMPAQ method seems to be less robust than the FLEC method in the determination of sorption coefficients since more than one couple of (ka; kd), showing the same ratio Ke can retrieve the same CLIMPAQ experimental data. Giving this result, the question arises about the reliability of the literature data determined using emission test chamber which could be one of the reasons behind the discrepancies found between experimental indoor concentrations and predicted ones using chamber derived parameters. |
Mao, Yun-Feng; Li, Zhuo; He, Ya-Ling; Tao, Wen-Quan CFD analysis of SVOC mass transfer in different chambers Journal Article In: International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer, vol. 99, pp. 613 - 621, 2016, ISSN: 0017-9310. Abstract | Links | BibTeX | Tags: CFD, Chambers, Sorption, SVOC, Velocity field @article{MAO2016613,Semi-volatile organic compound (SVOC) in indoor environment is an important research topic because of their wide use and persistent effect on human health. SVOC chambers have been continually improved to study the mass transfer characteristics in indoor environment. CFD method is used in the present paper to study the effect on mass transfer, especially on steady time by velocity field from the comparison of SVOC mass transfer in two different SVOC chambers (A and B). The results indicate that the variance of air flow in small range strongly affects the steady concentration and has no obvious effect on steady time. Sorption ability itself has great impact on steady time. The great reduction of steady time in Chamber B is the combined effect of sorption and velocity field. The velocity field resulted from the special structure of Chamber B leads to a stronger convective mass transfer resistance, and hence causes a weaker effective sorption. Therefore, the less steady time in Chamber B is the result of weaker effective sorption besides a less sorption area of Chamber B than Chamber A. |
Rizk, M; Verriele, M; Dusanter, S; Schoemaecker, C; calve, Le S; Locoge, N Fast sorption measurements of volatile organic compounds on building materials: Part 1 – Methodology developed for field applications Journal Article In: Building and Environment, vol. 99, pp. 200 - 209, 2016, ISSN: 0360-1323. Abstract | Links | BibTeX | Tags: Building materials, Field and laboratory emission cell (FLEC), Proton transfer reaction-mass spectrometer (PTR-MS), Sorption, VOCs @article{RIZK2016200,Several physicochemical processes occurring within buildings are key drivers of indoor concentrations of Volatile Organic Compounds VOCs. Many models and experimental studies have been proposed to predict VOCs concentration indoors given these processes. However, there is a lack of representative data in literature to present gas–surface interaction in order to validate mathematical models. This work is divided in two parts and aims to develop and validate a method to perform fast measurements of VOC sorption parameters on the field by coupling a Field and Laboratory Emission Cell (FLEC) to a Proton Transfer Reaction-Mass Spectrometer (PTR-MS). In the part 1 of the work, sorption coefficients of aromatic compounds on a gypsum board and vinyl flooring were investigated at ppb levels to test and evaluate the proposed methodology. Sorption coefficients in the range of 0.03–1.88 m h−1 for ka and 2.04–17.32 h−1 for kd were successfully measured within a (0.5–8 h) for the two materials. Robustness tests highlight that the determination of sorption coefficients does not depend on operating conditions. While sorption coefficients for the gypsum board were measured with a PTR-MS time resolution of 20 s, the vinyl flooring material required measurements at a higher time resolution of 2 s due to its lower sorption properties. Limits of applicability assessed for this method indicate that sets of sorption parameters (ka, kd) of (0.01 m h−1; 0.01 h−1) and (0.09 m h−1; 0.09 h−1) can be measured with an accuracy better than 10% at time resolutions of 2 and 20 s respectively. |
Xiong, Jianyin; Cao, Jianping; Zhang, Yinping Early stage C-history method: Rapid and accurate determination of the key SVOC emission or sorption parameters of indoor materials Journal Article In: Building and Environment, vol. 95, pp. 314 - 321, 2016, ISSN: 0360-1323. Abstract | Links | BibTeX | Tags: Emission, Indoor air quality, Key parameters, Semi-volatile organic compounds (SVOCs), Sorption @article{XIONG2016314,The accurate and rapid determination of the emission parameters of semi-volatile organic compounds (SVOCs) from indoor materials is of great importance for estimating and controlling indoor exposure. By virtue of a simplified mass transfer model we derived, a new method called the early stage C-history method, has been developed to measure the key emission parameters: the gas phase SVOC concentration adjacent to the material surface (y0) and the convective mass transfer coefficient (hm). We validate this model using experimental data found in the literature. When compared with established methods, the new method has the following salient features: (1) rapid (the experimental time is reduced from several months to several days); (2) accurate (R2 in the range of 0.92–0.97). Further analysis shows that both features can be further improved if the test system has a smaller chamber wall/air partition coefficient. The new method is also extended to measure the key parameters of SVOCs from sorption materials. This method should prove useful for screening SVOC emission characteristics and for assessing exposure, as well as for chamber and test design. |
2015 |
Liang, Yirui; Caillot, Olivier; Zhang, Jianshun; Zhu, Jiping; Xu, Ying Large-scale chamber investigation and simulation of phthalate emissions from vinyl flooring Journal Article In: Building and Environment, vol. 89, pp. 141 - 149, 2015, ISSN: 0360-1323. Abstract | Links | BibTeX | Tags: Emission, Large-scale chamber, Modeling, Phthalates, Sorption, SVOCs @article{LIANG2015141,This study investigated phthalate emissions from vinyl flooring in a large-scale chamber. Vinyl flooring materials were examined for their phthalates content; one with high contents of diisononyl phthalate (DINP) and di(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate (DEHP) was selected for emissions testing in a small chamber at two different temperatures. Using the same type of vinyl flooring, large-scale chamber experiments were then conducted in three testing phases. In the first phase, the gas-phase concentrations of DINP and DEHP in the large chamber at 36 °C were about three times lower than those in the small chamber under the same temperature, which is consistent with its lower area/volume ratio. In the second phase, when a large air mixing fan inside the chamber was replaced with a small fan, the gas-phase concentrations of DINP and DEHP in the large chamber were reduced slightly, due to the decease of mass transfer coefficient and emission rate. During the last phase, when the temperature of the chamber was reduced to 25 °C, phthalate concentrations dropped instantly and steeply due to the significantly reduced emissions. However, they did not decrease as quickly thereafter because of desorption of phthalates from the internal surfaces of the large chamber. A fundamental mechanistic model was developed to interpret the experimental results in the large chamber based on the emission characteristics obtained in the small chamber measurements. Reasonable agreement was obtained between the model calculation and experimental data. Further model simulations show that temperature and air mixing above the source material have important effects on the fate of phthalates, while the impact of air change rate (ACH) is not significant. |