Wind and Temperature Effect on the Performance of a Mobile e-nose platform for Real Time Victim Localization

Abstract

Abstract In this paper it is presented the influence of weather conditions on the performance of the sensors of a mobile e-nose system that measures the atmospheric air, gas components’ concentrations (actually CO2 and O2), into a rubble void, where humans are entrapped, after a disastrous event that caused the collapsing of a building/construction. In this case, the entrapped humans in the void, they affect the air composition and temperature into the void. Additionally to the human(s) created CO2 source(s), O2 sink(s), and heat source(s) (from body temperature), rubble openings (possibly too many), create sources of fresh atmospheric air and sinks for letting the air from the inside of the cavity to go out of it and vice-versa. The existence of the aforementioned sources/sinks constantly affect the air composition and temperature into the void and makes gas components’ concentrations dynamic rather than static. There will be studied the fresh atmospheric air sources into a cavity taking into account also the outside weather conditions. The final goal is to estimate the concentrations of CO2 and O2 into the cavity as a function of time, having as parameters, the external weather conditions, the openings of the void and the number of entrapped humans. Estimating the concentrations it will enable the operator of a mobile e-nose system with sensors of a specific sensitivity and specificity, to determine the possibilities of detecting the presence of humans in a rubble void.