Abstract
The tracer gas method has been well established for measuring air change rates in residential and other building spaces. Owing to its versatility, the method has recently been applied to spaces beyond conventional buildings, including relatively small-scale environments such as clothing, footwear, and domestic refrigerators. Traditionally, the air change rate of such small spaces has been used primarily as an indicator for product performance evaluation. However, small enclosed or semi-enclosed spaces can also serve as sites for the generation, accumulation, and emission of odorous substances and volatile compounds, suggesting that the air change rate may represent an important environmental parameter for understanding their behavior. This paper reviews previous studies in which the tracer gas method was applied to measure air change rates in small-scale spaces and discusses the significance of characterizing their ventilation properties, as well as the potential applications of this approach in the field of indoor environment.
