Air Leakage Flow Correlations for Varying House Construction

Fan pressurization techniques are being employed by an increasingly large number of contractors
and auditors to determine the leakage characteristics of structures. In this study, a large
data base of flow exponents and flow coefficients are compiled to determine the degree of
correlation that exists between flow parameters. The resulting empirical relationships are
then used to determine the feasibility of predicting these flow parameters directly from a
single pressure difference test. On the basis of these correlations, a new pressure
independent tigh~ness parameter is proposed.