Performance Evaluation of Radon Mitigating Materials for Building a Radon Resistant Dwelling

Radon mitigation performance of SGMs and ARMs was evaluated in five different modes, two of which are active modes supported by a ventilation fan on and the others are passive modes with no fan. The test was performed in a concrete structure consisting of eight partitioned rooms. The bottom side of each room is covered with gravels and radon gas soil sampled at nearby open fields. Then, SGMs and ARMs are installed on top of the soil to block the radon gas. The test is performed for three days in passive modes and for another three days in active modes. Then, the radon concentration is measured with an E-perm monitor. These tests are repeated for three different levels of radon gas concentration in the sample soil, labeled as low (L), medium (M) and high (H). Experimental results present two observations. The first one is that, in accordance with the EPA recommendations, radon mitigating materials make much greater effects when they are used in an active mode. The best result was from A-1 mode (SGM+ARM+fan). For all of L, M and H soil samples, the radon concentration turned out to be the lowest, about 10 % ~ 40 % of 148 Bq/m3, the EPA activation level (EAL). In A-2 mode (SGM+ fan), the concentration was a reasonably fair level, about 25 % ~ 48 % of EAL. The second observation is that the performance of mitigating materials used in passive modes is unreliable. In all of three passive test modes, the radon concentration was higher than the EAL, or just below the EAL. Young Sub Lee | Yong Hee Lee | Yong Cheol Kim | Gyu-Sik Kim"Performance Evaluation of Radon Mitigating Materials for Building a Radon Resistant Dwelling" Published in International Journal of Trend in Scientific Research and Development (ijtsrd), ISSN: 2456-6470, Volume-2 | Issue-4 , June 2018, URL: http://www.ijtsrd.com/papers/ijtsrd14140.pdf http://www.ijtsrd.com/engineering/electrical-engineering/14140/performance-evaluation-of-radon-mitigating-materials-for-building-a-radon-resistant-dwelling/young-sub-lee