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The main research areas for Professor Zhai's group include sustainable building technologies and indoor air quality. Representative projects in each category are briefly outlined.

Sustainable Building Technologies
Breathing Walls

• Creatively proposed and developed innovative wall systems using bio-mimicry principles
• Developed multi-scale design, optimization, and evaluation tools
• Cited by the Science Magazine (July 2013) and covered by multiple media (e.g., NPR) and multiple invited talks by DOE etc
   

Natural and Hybrid Ventilation Systems

• Quantified energy benefits of using passive building technologies such as Natural/Hybrid Ventilation
• Developed integrated ES and CFD approach for modeling NV/HV
• Identified development directions of new NV/HV models for ASHRAE and DOE

Natural and Hybrid Ventilation Systems

• Quantified energy benefits of using passive building technologies such as Natural/Hybrid Ventilation
• Developed integrated ES and CFD approach for modeling NV/HV
• Identified development directions of new NV/HV models for ASHRAE and DOE

Personalized Air Conditioning Systems

• Proposed and developed next-generation personalized HVAC system with better thermal comfort, IAQ and energy efficiency
• Design approach and evaluation matrix were adopted by industry

Indoor Air Quality

Hospital Operation Room Infection

• Developed unique full-scale hospital operating room (OR) lab facility at CU
• Exposed and identified the failure mechanisms of hospital OR ventilation system that may cause serious surgical site infections (SSI)
• Revised current OR design standards by NIH/ASHARE
• Developed new systems and design tools

Data Center Heat Management  

• Developed simplified but accurate server and rack models for “whole-room” airflow and heat transfer analysis
• Adopted as standard models by data center design software and industry

Contaminant Source Identification

• Created an innovative method that can inversely track contaminant sources in built environments with limited sensor inputs
• Formed a new research area – “inverse design of built environments” – well recognized by the field as a leading scientist
• Expanded into aircraft cabin design (e.g., China Commercial Aircraft Corp and Boeing)
  
   

COVID Indoor Risks and Mitigation Solutions

• Predicted the COVID-19 indoor risks and effectiveness of various mitigation solutions in typical buildings (e.g., office, retail, school, hotel, etc.)
• Studied the efficacy of social distancing and ventilation.
• Promoted the use of portable air cleaner for spaces with high population.