Toward resolving model-measurement discrepancies of radon entry into houses
My dissertation research investigated the source of the model-measurement discrepancy via carefully controlled field experiments conducted at an experimental basement located in natural soil in Ben Lomond, California. Early experiments at the structure (Chapter II) confirmed the existence and magnitude of the model-measurement discrepancy, ensuring that it was not merely an artifact of inherently complex and poorly understood field sites. The measured soil-gas entry rate during structure depressurization was found to be an order of magnitude larger than predicted by a current three-dimensional numerical model of radon transport. The exact magnitude of the discrepancy depends on whether the arithmetic or geometric mean of the small-scale measurements of permeability is used to estimate the effective permeability of the soil. This factor is a critical empirical input to the model and was determined for the Ben Lomond site in the typical fashion using single-probe static depressurization measurement at multiple locations. The remainder of the dissertation research tests a hypothesis to explain the observed discrepancy: that soil permeability assessed using relatively small-scale probe measurements (0.1-0.5 m) does not reflect bulk soil permeability for flows that is likely to occur at larger scales of several meters or more in real houses and in the test structure. The idea is that soil heterogeneity is of a nature that, as flows occur over larger scales, larger scales of heterogeneity are encountered that facilitate larger flux rates, resulting in a scale dependence of effective soil permeability. In Chapter III, I describe the development of a dual-probe dynamic pressure technique to measure soil permeability to air (and anisotropy of permeability) at various length scales. Preliminary field tests of the apparatus indicated that soil permeability was indeed scale dependent.
- Research Organization:
- Univ. of California, Berkeley, CA (United States)
- OSTI ID:
- 79303
- Resource Relation:
- Other Information: TH: Thesis (Ph.D.); PBD: 1993
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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