The effect of steady winds on radon-222 entry from soil into houses

Riley, William J.; Gadgil, Ashok; Bonnefous, Y.C.; Nazaroff, William W.

doi:10.1016/1352-2310(95)00248-0

Cited by 45 publications

(37 citation statements)

References 13 publications

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“…The remaining contaminants are carried out of the sub-slab region and into the building by advection of outdoor air flowing through the soil near the building foundation and into the building, and by molecular diffusion through the soil and building slab. The advective flows are caused by atmospheric pressure fluctuations and wind loading on the building (22,23). Finally, wind loading pressurizes the soil surface on the upwind side of the building relative to the downwind side, driving a low-velocity "upwind-downwind" advective air flow into the soil on the upwind side, through the soil in both the sub-slab and deep regions, and out into the outdoor air on the downwind side.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Using the wind data we also estimated the magnitude and direction of the soil-gas velocity due to upwind-downwind pressure gradient, and the resulting volumetric flow rate. We assumed that the soil surface on the upwind side of the building was pressurized to the Bernoulli pressure while the soil surface on the downwind side was depressurized by the same amount (23). The resulting upwind-downwind velocity in the soil gas was estimated as the onedimensional Darcy velocity…”

Section: Estimated Effective Soil-gas Entry Into Buildingmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Factors Affecting Indoor Air Concentrations of Volatile Organic Compounds at a Site of Subsurface Gasoline Contamination

Fischer

Bentley

Dunkin

et al. 1996

Environ. Sci. Technol.

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We report a field study of soil gas transport of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) into a slab-on-grade building found at a site contaminated with gasoline. Although the high VOC concentrations (30-60 g nr 3 ) measured in the soil gas at depths of 0.7 m below the building suggest a potential for high levels of indoor VOC, the measured indoor air concentrations were lower than those in the soil gas by approximately six orders of magnitude (~ 0.03 mg nr 3 ). This large ratio is explained by 1) the expected dilution of soil gas entering the building via ambient building ventilation (a factor of ~ 1000), and 2) an unexpectedly sharp gradient in soil gas VOC concentration between the depths of 0.1 and 0.7 m (a factor of ~ 1000). Measurements of the soil. physical and biological characteristics indicate that a partial physical barrier to vertical transport in combination with microbial degradation provides a likely explanation for this gradient. These factors are likely to be important to varying degrees at other sites.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Estimated Effective Soil-gas Entry Into Buildingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Factors Affecting Indoor Air Concentrations of Volatile Organic Compounds at a Site of Subsurface Gasoline Contamination

Fischer

Bentley

Dunkin

et al. 1996

Environ. Sci. Technol.

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“…Our numerical simulations of the flow of soil gas around a building (Riley et al [12]) indicate that radon entry rates are relatively insensitive to errors in the groundsurface pressure field that are on the order of those presented in Figure 7. We therefore conclude that, for a simple house geometry, the k-£ turbulence model predicts mean ground-surface pressure fields that are sufficiently accurate to study the steady-state transport of soil gas and radon in the presence of steady wind.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 92%

“…The increase in accuracy possible with these models comes at the expense of a large increase in computation time (e.g., Ferziger [24], Murakami [19]). One goal of the present work, together with that reported in Riley et al [12], is to test whether the relatively inexpensive k-£ turbulence model can provide sufficiently accurate ground-surface pressure fields for the simulation of soil-gas contaminant transport around houses.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Several authors have presented empirical evidence indicating that this pressure field may be significant when determining radon entry rates (Turk et al [10], Nazaroff et al [11]). A related paper (Riley et al [12]) investigates the effects of wind on radon entry and indoor radon concentrations. In that work, the wind tunnel data reported here are used as input to a three-dimensional numerical model of soil gas and radon transport.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Wind-induced ground-surface pressures around a single-family house

Riley

Gadgil

Nazaroff

1996

Journal of Wind Engineering and Industrial Aerodynamics

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Effect of varying atmospheric conditions on methane boundary‐layer development in a free flow domain interfaced with a porous media domain

2017

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Mitigation of atmospheric emission of methane from leaky underground infrastructure is important for controlling the global anthropogenic greenhouse gas burden. Overexposure to methane may also cause occupational health problems in indoor/outdoor environments at the local scale. Subsurface soil conditions (e.g. soil heterogeneity) affect methane migration in soils while near‐surface atmospheric boundary conditions (e.g. wind and temperature) affect off‐site emissions across the soil‐atmosphere interface. This study investigated the above‐surface methane concentration boundary‐layer development under different soil conditions (homogenous and layered) and atmospheric boundary controls (wind and temperature). A series of controlled bench‐scale experiments was conducted using an open‐loop boundary‐layer wind tunnel interfaced with a porous media tank inside which a simulated methane point source was embedded to mimic a buried leaky pipeline. Results revealed pronounced effects of wind and, to a lesser extent, temperature on above‐surface methane boundary‐layer development. High atmospheric temperature contributed to the concentration boundary‐layer build‐up whereas high wind velocity caused erosion of the boundary layer. The boundary‐layer methane concentration profiles were adequately simulated within an advection‐diffusion modeling framework combined with a Navier‐Stokes free flow domain by coupling free air flow, heat flow and flow of a multicomponent gas mixture. Simulations further implied that the Fickian diffusion approach may have limited applications when pronounced non‐isothermal conditions prevail within the system. © 2017 Society of Chemical Industry and John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

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The effect of steady winds on radon-222 entry from soil into houses

Cited by 45 publications

References 13 publications

Factors Affecting Indoor Air Concentrations of Volatile Organic Compounds at a Site of Subsurface Gasoline Contamination

Factors Affecting Indoor Air Concentrations of Volatile Organic Compounds at a Site of Subsurface Gasoline Contamination

Wind-induced ground-surface pressures around a single-family house

Effect of varying atmospheric conditions on methane boundary‐layer development in a free flow domain interfaced with a porous media domain

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