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Influence of indoor air conditions on radon concentration in a detached house

Akbari, K ; Sharif University of Technology | 2013

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  1. Type of Document: Article
  2. DOI: 10.1016/j.jenvrad.2012.08.013
  3. Publisher: 2013
  4. Abstract:
  5. Radon is released from soil and building materials and can accumulate in residential buildings. Breathing radon and radon progeny for extended periods hazardous to health and can lead to lung cancer. Indoor air conditions and ventilation systems strongly influence indoor radon concentrations. This paper focuses on effects of air change rate, indoor temperature and relative humidity on indoor radon concentrations in a one family detached house in Stockholm, Sweden.In this study a heat recovery ventilation system unit was used to control the ventilation rate and a continuous radon monitor (CRM) was used to measure radon levels. FLUENT, a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) software package was used to simulate radon entry into the building and air change rate, indoor temperature and relative humidity effects using a numerical approach.The results from analytical solution, measurements and numerical simulations showed that air change rate, indoor temperature and moisture had significant effects on indoor radon concentration. Increasing air change rate reduces radon level and for a specific air change rate (in this work Ach = 0.5) there was a range of temperature and relative humidity that minimized radon levels. In this case study minimum radon levels were obtained at temperatures between 20 and 22 °C and a relative humidity of 50-60%
  6. Keywords:
  7. Air change rate ; Numerical modeling ; Radon mitigation ; Relative humidity ; Temperature ; Air change rates ; Detached house ; Indoor air ; Indoor radon ; Indoor temperature ; Lung Cancer ; Radon concentrations ; Radon level ; Radon monitors ; Radon progeny ; Residential building ; Stockholm ; Temperature and relative humidity ; Ventilation rate ; Ventilation systems ; Atmospheric humidity ; Atmospheric temperature ; Computational fluid dynamics ; Numerical models ; Space heating ; Ventilation ; Waste heat ; Atmospheric pollution ; Bioaccumulation ; Building ; Cancer ; Concentration (composition) ; Health risk ; Moisture content ; Numerical model ; Residential location ; Software ; Temperature effect ; Air ; Air conditioning ; Continuous radon monitor ; Energy recovery ; Moisture ; Monitor ; Ventilator ; Air Movements ; Air Pollutants, Radioactive ; Air Pollution, Indoor ; Air Pollution, Radioactive ; Housing ; Humidity ; Models, Theoretical ; Radiation Monitoring ; Radon ; Stockholm [Sweden] ; Sweden
  8. Source: Journal of Environmental Radioactivity ; Volume 116 , February , 2013 , Pages 166-173 ; 0265931X (ISSN)
  9. URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0265931X12002202