Transfer Operator Based Approach for Estimating After Release Contaminant Distribution in Indoor Environment

Maintaining indoor environment quality requires availability of effective estimation and control measures. In hazardous substances release scenario, a prompt estimation of contaminant distribution in the space is essential to enable quick control action. In this paper, we discuss the use of Perron-Frobenius (P-F) operator based approach for the design of an estimator to efficiently track the contaminant in an indoor environment. While the contaminants are evolving under the influence of nonlinear fluid flow field, the linear nature of the P-F operator is exploited for the design of estimator dynamics. In particular, the linear nature of the P-F framework is used for the design of a Kalman filtering algorithm to track the contaminants under an impulsive release scenario. Simulation results involving International Energy Agency (IEA) two dimensional building system model are presented to verify the main findings of the paper.