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Research on Indoor Air Quality and Sustainable Artificial Environments
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Research on Indoor Air Quality and Sustainable Artificial Environments

A special issue of Buildings (ISSN 2075-5309). This special issue belongs to the section "Building Energy, Physics, Environment, and Systems".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 30 September 2025 | Viewed by 597

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Yu Zhao

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Civil Engineering, Dalian University of Technology, Dalian 11600, China
Interests: traffic-related environment control; aerosol dynamics; ventilation
Dr. Peng Wang

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Civil Engineering, Dalian University of Technology, Dalian 11600, China
Interests: energy-saving optimization; AI-based CFD; thermal comfort control
Dr. Chunhui Liao

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
School of Civil and Hydraulic Engineering, Chongqing University of Science and Technology, Chongqing 401331, China
Interests: building ventilation; indoor air quality; thermal comfort
Dr. Jinfu Zheng

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
School of Environmental and Municipal Engineering, Qingdao University of Technology, Qingdao 266520, China
Interests: renewable energy; thermal energy storage; HVAC systems; indoor air quality; indoor air purification technology

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Good indoor air quality is a vital element of building sustainability as people spend most of their time indoors. It is beneficial to increase occupant health, productivity, and well-being. The spread of COVID-19 and the flu has strengthened the importance of research on indoor air quality. Meanwhile, the concept of artificial environments is not limited to traditional offices, residential buildings, classrooms, shopping malls, etc., as vehicles, subway cabins, airplanes, and even some special spaces including submarines, airships, and space stations should be included in the scope of artificial environments. The optimal and smart control of HVAC systems is basic to build a healthy, comfortable, and sustainable environment in the abovementioned artificial spaces.

This Special Issue provides a platform for the exchange of knowledge, designs, and techniques to create a healthy and sustainable artificial environment. This Special Issue is open to any subject area relating to research on indoor air quality and sustainable artificial environments. Research papers, analytical reviews, case studies, conceptual frameworks, and policy-relevant articles are welcome.

Dr. Yu Zhao
Dr. Peng Wang
Dr. Chunhui Liao
Dr. Jinfu Zheng
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Buildings is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • indoor air quality
  • building energy
  • building physics
  • thermal comfort
  • HVAC systems
  • pollutant dispersion in artificial environments
  • smart control
  • CFD simulation indoors
  • artificial intelligence
  • CFD fast prediction

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Further information on MDPI's Special Issue policies can be found here.

Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

20 pages, 2034 KB  
Article
Cognitive Recovery of Young Males in Thermoneutral Indoor Environments: Effects of Sleep Restrictions
by Hui Zhu, Duo Yang, Quanna Liao, Da Yuan, Fan Zhang, Masanari Ukai and Le Ma
Buildings 2025, 15(17), 3021; https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings15173021 (registering DOI) - 25 Aug 2025
Abstract
To explore effects of sleep restriction (SR) on next-morning cognitive recovery of young males under thermoneutral environments, three SR conditions, namely the mild (ending at 01:20), moderate (ending at 02:30) and severe sleep restriction (ending at 03:40), were carried out on participants in [...] Read more.
To explore effects of sleep restriction (SR) on next-morning cognitive recovery of young males under thermoneutral environments, three SR conditions, namely the mild (ending at 01:20), moderate (ending at 02:30) and severe sleep restriction (ending at 03:40), were carried out on participants in a thermoneutral environment. During experiments, the subjective sleepiness, perceived workload, and thermal sensation were surveyed. Electrocardiogram (ECG) data were recoded continuously to conduct the heart rate variability (HRV) analysis. In addition, the Deary–Liewald task (including the Simple Response Time task and the Choice Response Time task), Stroop task and Corsi Block task were completed. Results revealed significant increases in sleepiness and perceived workloads during SR. In addition, mean heart rate reduced significantly during moderate (ΔHR = −9.48, p < 0.05) and severe SRs (ΔHR = −9.69, p < 0.01), although it returned to the baseline level in the next morning. The root mean square of successive differences (RMSSD) was elevated during all SRs (Mild SR ΔRMSSD = 27.34, p < 0.05; Moderate SR ΔRMSSD = 33.06, p < 0.01; Severe SR ΔRMSSD = 24.61, p < 0.05) but reduced to baseline the next morning. Furthermore, the sustained attention (SRT) and selective attention performances (CRT) were impaired significantly under moderate (SRT ΔPI = −0.59, p < 0.05; CRT ΔPI = −0.24, p < 0.05) and severe SR (SRT ΔPI = −0.39, p < 0.05; CRT ΔPI = −0.42, p < 0.01). However, the sustained attention performance was restored the next morning even after severe SR, whereas the selective attention performance remained impaired (ΔPI = −0.36, p < 0.01). Significant reductions were observed in the Stroop task performance only after the severe SR (ΔPI = −0.17, p < 0.05), while short-term memory was slightly affected either during or after all SRs (p > 0.05). The overall cognitive performance reduced significantly after the moderate and severe SRs (Moderate SR ΔOPI = −0.30, p < 0.05; Severe SR ΔOPI = −0.40, p < 0.05), even in the next morning. Findings suggest that cognitive impairments caused by mild and moderate SRs could be partially recovered the next morning, while severe SR produced significant impairments in complex cognitive functions, potentially linked to parasympathetic dysregulation and failure of prefrontal compensatory mechanisms. Preliminary findings from this study offer initial implications for cognitive preservation strategies in office environments after night-time overwork. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Research on Indoor Air Quality and Sustainable Artificial Environments)
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28 pages, 1140 KB  
Article
Hybrid Metaheuristic Optimization of HVAC Energy Consumption and Thermal Comfort in an Office Building Using EnergyPlus
by Reza Akraminejad, Tianyi Zhao, Yacine Rezgui, Ali Ghoroghi and Yousef Shahbazi Razlighi
Buildings 2025, 15(14), 2568; https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings15142568 - 21 Jul 2025
Viewed by 363
Abstract
Energy is a critical resource, and its optimization is central to sustainable building design. Occupant comfort, significantly influenced by factors, including mean radiant temperature (MRT), alongside air temperature, velocity, and humidity, is another key consideration. This paper introduces a hybrid crow search optimization [...] Read more.
Energy is a critical resource, and its optimization is central to sustainable building design. Occupant comfort, significantly influenced by factors, including mean radiant temperature (MRT), alongside air temperature, velocity, and humidity, is another key consideration. This paper introduces a hybrid crow search optimization (CSA) and penguin search optimization algorithm (PeSOA), termed (HCRPN), designed to simultaneously optimize building energy consumption and achieve MRT levels conducive to thermal comfort by adjusting HVAC system parameters. We first validate HCRPN using ZDT-1 and Shaffer N1 multi-objective benchmarks. Subsequently, we employ EnergyPlus simulations, utilizing a single-objective Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) for initial parameter analysis to generate a dataset. Following correlation analyses to understand parameter relationships, we implement our hybrid multi-objective approach. Comparative evaluations against state-of-the-art algorithms, including MoPso, NSGA-II, hybrid Nsga2/MOEAD, and Mo-CSA, validated the effectiveness of HCRPN. Our findings demonstrate an average 7% reduction in energy consumption and a 3% improvement in MRT-based comfort relative to existing methods. While seemingly small, even minor enhancements in MRT can have a noticeable positive impact on well-being, particularly in large, high-occupancy buildings. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Research on Indoor Air Quality and Sustainable Artificial Environments)
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