The Air Physics Lab (APL) at the Department of Engineering, Aarhus University - Foulum is a well-equipped laboratory focusing on the study of airflow dynamics including indoor air motion, air quality, ventilation design and control, heat and mass transfer as well as airborne particle transport etc. The research group in the APL has significant expertise on large space ventilation, indoor climate, air distribution and air quality control and can provide both international high level experimental works and competent Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) simulations.

The APL is equipped advance instrumentations for the measurements of air motion, thermal environment and air quality, including several high precision air velocity sensors:

• A 2-D (2-dimensional) LDA (Laser Doppler Anemometry);
• A 1-D LDA;
• A 8-channel 3-D ultrasonic air velocity sensor system;
• A 2-channel high frequency 3-D research ultrasonic air velocity sensors;
• A multi-channel air velocity measurement unit with up to 20 channels, different air quality instruments, dust counter and, of course, wind tunnels in different scales;
• 2 multi-channel INNOVA Infrared Photo Acoustic Spectroscopy for NH₃, CH₄, CO₂ N₂O measurements;
• A numbers of varied type precision pressure manometers, velocity sensors and calibration facility for varied air physics parameters, etc. 

The APL has several wind tunnels in varied scale which may be used for research of airflow in boundary layer air dynamics, heat & mass transfer; Full-dimensional ventilation chamber to simulated a building section with varied configurations and heat loads, e.g., a section of office room, or a section of pig pen with varied slatted floor configurations and ‘artificial pigs’ with a controlled heat production; A numbers of building models with varied scale for investigation airflow patterns, ventilation design and control, gas and odour emission & transport in ventilated room space, etc.

The engineering research group at Air Physics Laboratory has conducted remarkable research in design and control of ventilation for optimal indoor climate and air quality for farm animal housing. The research activities have been also in close collaborations with other disciplines, such as in the areas of animal’s welfare & behaviours; working environments, air pollutions & atmospheric environments etc.  The research group has extensive experience in the areas of measurement; modelling and control of ventilation; indoor air motion and air quality. The group has developed a broad knowledge of this subject material together with well established routines with regard to experimental setups, data collection and analysis.

Research is also often conducted in co-operation with private companies. The lab is open for companies and universities to carry out tests with assistance from the department’s highly experienced staff. 

Examples of research activities

• Air distribution in ventilated room spaces
• Particle, heat and mass transfer in air
• Emission from livestock production buildings, including emission source boundary layers; dispersion modelling & estimation from emission sources
• Modelling and control mechanical and natural ventilation
• Energy efficient ventilation
• Innovative green ventilation concepts