Patent attributes
This method makes it possible, with highest possible precision and without any major expense, to determine the air tightness of an enclosed space. Specifically, it introduces a method which, on demand and in effective yet easy-to-implement fashion, permits at any time the updated determination of the existing air tightness of the enclosed space without requiring a complex test series. To that effect, the first step according to the method is to define a concentration gradient between the internal air atmosphere of an enclosed space and the ambient air atmosphere by setting the physical concentration of at least one constituent component of the space-internal air atmosphere, in particular of oxygen, at a value that differs from the physical concentration value of that minimum of one corresponding component in the ambient air atmosphere. This is followed by a determination of the concentration change rate in that, in the space-internal air atmosphere, the time-based change of the physical concentration of the minimum of one constituent component is measured. Finally, taking into account the previously determined concentration change rate, the air-tightness value of the enclosed space is calculated.