Page 1 of 19

Single Zone Tutorial

This is a very quick introduction to get you started using CONTAM. It will take you through the basic steps of creating a simple, single zone project, performing simulations and analyzing results. To begin the tutorial, run ContamW. If the ContamW title bar does not display untitled then create a new project by selecting New Project from the File menu. Then save the project via the File - Save Project As ... menu item. When the Save As dialog box appears give the project a name, for example, single. You should now have a blank SketchPad as shown below.

Draw the Walls

Select the Box Drawing tool by clicking on the toolbar button shown below. Box wall drawing tool (Ctrl+B) Draw a rectangle by moving to the top left corner of where you want to draw the rectangle, click the left mouse button to anchor the drawing tool, drag down and to the right until you have the desired size rectangle, and click the left mouse button again to finalize the drawing. This rectangle represents the wall boundaries of a zone. Both the floor and ceiling are implied.

Single Zone Tutorial

Page 2 of 19

Define the Zone

Right click within the rectangle to activate the pop-up icon placement menu and select Zone.

This will place an undefined zone icon (as indicated by the red color) within the bounding rectangle.

Single Zone Tutorial

Page 3 of 19

Double-click on the zone icon to display the Zone Properties dialog shown below. Name the zone A and set the volume at 100 m. Notice the Floor Area will automatically be calculated by dividing the volume by the default level height of 3 m. Click the OK button to set the zone properties as indicated by the black zone icon.

Define the Airflow Paths

Single Zone Tutorial

Page 4 of 19

Right click on the left hand wall and select Flow Path from the icon placement menu. This will place an undefined path icon on the wall.

Double-click on the path icon to display the Airflow Path Properties dialog box shown below.

Click on the New Element button to display the list of Airflow Element Models shown below.

Single Zone Tutorial

Page 5 of 19

Select the Orifice Area Data model and click the OK button. This will display the Powerlaw Model: Orifice dialog box shown below. Name the airflow element Orfc1, provide a Descripton of 100 cm2 orfice, and click the OK button.

The Airflow Path Properties dialog box should now indicate the Name of the Airflow Element Orfc1 along with its Model Summary information as shown below. Click the OK button to set the airflow path properties as indicated by the black airflow path icon.

Single Zone Tutorial

Page 6 of 19

Now create a fan to force airflow through the zone, by adding another path to the opposite wall and activating the Airflow Path Properties. Create a new Constant Volume Flow model having a flow rate of 100 m/h as shown below and click OK.

Select the Flow Path tab of the Airflow Path Properties dialog and set the Positive Flow Direction to be From zone A to zone Ambt as shown below and click OK.

Single Zone Tutorial

Page 7 of 19

You should now have a SketchPad that looks similar to the one below.

Steady State Airflow Simulation

Set the simulation parameters
Display the simulation parameters to insure they are set to run a steady state airflow simulation by selecting Set Simulation Parameters from the Simulation menu (or use the F4 function key).

Single Zone Tutorial

Page 8 of 19

Run the simulation

Run a simulation by clicking the Run button. This will display the CONTAMX Simulation Control dialog box shown below. Start the simulation then close the simulation control dialog when the Simulation Status indicates Done.

Single Zone Tutorial

Page 9 of 19

Review Airflow Simulation Results

You should now see the results of the simulation displayed on the SketchPad similar to the one below. The green lines indicates the direction and relative magnitude of airflow rate and the red lines indicates the direction and relative magnitude of the pressure drop across the flow paths. You can highlight each flow path to display the results in the left-most pane of the status bar and the floating status window if it is activated (Ctrl+T to toggle floating status window).

Define a Contaminant
In order to perform contaminant calculations, you must create at least one contaminant to be simulated. Activate the Project Species dialog box via the Data - Contaminants ... menu command. Click the New button to display the Species Properties dialog box shown below and create a species named CO2 having the properties shown below.

Single Zone Tutorial

Page 10 of 19

Click the OK button, and the Project Species dialog box should now indicate that the project contains one species and that species is used in the simulation which makes it appear in the Contaminants list as well, i.e., a contaminant is a species that is set to be used in the simulation. This allows you to activate and deactivate contaminants between simulations without losing the properties. Now click the OK button to set the properties of the species/contaminant.

Single Zone Tutorial

Page 11 of 19

Define Contaminant Source

Now that the contaminant is defined, a source can be created and placed within the zone. To create a source, right click on a blank cell within the zone and select Source/Sink from the icon placement menu. This will place an undefined source/sink icon on the SketchPad.

Double-click on the source/sink icon to display the Source/sink Properties dialog box shown below.

Single Zone Tutorial

Page 12 of 19

Click on the New Element button to display the list of Source/Sink Element Models shown below.

Select the Constant Coefficient model and click the OK button. This will display the Constant Coefficient Model dialog box shown below. Name the element and set the Generation Rate to 0.01 g/s as shown below then click the OK button to set the element properties.

Single Zone Tutorial

Page 13 of 19

You should now have an element set for the source as displayed below. Click the OK button to set the properties of the source.

The source/sink icon should now be black to indicate that its properties are defined as shown below.

Single Zone Tutorial

Page 14 of 19

Run Contaminant Simulation

Display the simulation parameters to insure they are set to run a steady state airflow and steady state contaminant simulation by selecting Set Simulation Parameters from the Simulation menu (or use the F4 function key). Then click the Run button to perform the simulation.

Review Contaminant Simulation Results

Single Zone Tutorial

Page 15 of 19

After running the simulation you should see the airflow results on the SketchPad as before. Highlight the zone icon and select View - Results Display Window from the menu. This will display the window shown below with both the contaminant concentration and airflow results for the highlighted zone.

Run Transient Simulation

You can also run transient simulation wherein the airflow and contaminant (or only the contaminant) varies with time. The airflow can vary due to variations in driving forces such as windspeed and direction, outdoor temperature, ventilation system flows or changes in the configuration of building openings, e.g., opening and closing of doors and windows. Contaminant concentrations can change due to these changes in airflows as well as changes in source and sink emission and removal rates. This example will demonstrate the time variation of both airflow and contaminant concentrations by simply scheduling the fan airflow rate to vary with time while the source will still emit at a constant rate as before.

Define a Schedule for the Fan

Double-click the fan icon to display the Airflow Path Properties dialog and select the Filter and Schedule tab. Click the New Schedule button to display the Week Schedule dialog then click the New day Schedule button to display the Day Schedule dialog box. Define a schedule that turns on (a value of 1.0) and off (a value of 0.0)

Single Zone Tutorial

Page 16 of 19

every hour until 06:00:00. Give it a name, e.g., FanSched, as shown in the following figure, and click the OK button.

Select all of the days on the left side of the Week Schedule dialog box, and click the Replace button to set them all to the newly defined day schedule. Give the schedule a name as shown in the following figure and click the OK button.

The schedule for the fan airflow path should now be set to the one you just created as shown in the Airflow Path Properties dialog box in the following figure.

Single Zone Tutorial

Page 17 of 19

Run Transient Simulation

Display the simulation parameters to set them to run a transient airflow and transient contaminant simulation by selecting Set Simulation Parameters from the Simulation menu. Set the Simulation Dates and Times and the Simulation Time Steps as shown in the figure below. Select the Output tab and be sure the Contaminant Concentrations check box labeled Detailed is checked. Click the Run button to perform the simulation.

Single Zone Tutorial

Page 18 of 19

View Results of Transient Contaminant Simulation

After the simulation has been performed, right-click on the zone icon and select Plot Contaminants from the pop-up menu. Click the OK button on the Chart Control dialog box to display the transient concentration results as shown in the following figure.

Single Zone Tutorial