At NPARU we have dedicated testing facilities for a variety of uses. A world-leading feature of our facility is a specially designed and constructed environmental testing chamber – a climate controlled room. This room is capable of recreating most climate types and environmental conditions worldwide. It will facilitate the investigation of links between allergic diseases and environmental factors and will be used to test products and appliances in various environmental conditions.

Our environmental testing suite has been designed for a number of potential uses. It allows us to manipulate the conditions within the main chamber and within sub-chambers. We are able to tailor a testing programme to combine any of the following factors:

We can manipulate and accurately control temperature within the range -20°C to +50°C and humidity within the range from 5% RH to 95% RH. This means that we can replicate environmental conditions ranging from the Arctic to the Sahara desert, to south-east Asian summers!

Our test chamber can manipulate its atmosphere leaving a higher concentration of Nitrogen – Hypoxic air. Oxygen levels are monitored by an oxygen sensor to ensure that safety is maintained. Uses: to improve human performance, to simulate the effects of altitude (e.g. altitude of over 5,000 metres) or to promote injury recovery.

Air movement can be turbulent or laminar flow, or we can use directional fans to simulate forward motion of a vehicle. Uses: to simulate natural environmental conditions or to remove odours and other pollutants.

Size: Our test chamber is large, (5m x 5m), and tall (over 4m).

We are therefore able to test vehicles and their components (e.g. the efficiency of car pollen filters or VOC emissions) in different environmental conditions. We also have a smaller environmental test cabinet and sub-chambers.

Gases can be extracted from our test chamber and analysed using Gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS). This includes Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) emanating from products and materials.