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2017
Conference Paper
Titel
Sensory evaluation of building products
Titel Supplements
Influences of direct and indirect assessment
Abstract
The release of volatile organic compounds from building products may influence the perceived air quality in the indoor environment. Consequently, building products need to be assessed for the acceptability of emitted odors. The standard ISO 16000-28 describes the evaluation of perceived odor intest chambers with trained panelists, being calibrated with diluted acetone. For the direct odor assessment ISO 16000-28 requires an air flow of 0.6 - 1.0 l/s at the chamber outlet. To meet these conditions, the minimum chamber volume is about 3 m³. If smaller chambers are applied, air must be collected from the chamber outlet into containers for an indirect odor assessment. Procedures for cleaning and storage are provided in the ISO-standard. Nevertheless, the indirect assessment method has a number of pitfalls and drawbacks. Experiments with different types of building products have shown that the composition of sampled air might be influenced by the container material due to sink effects and leakage.