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Improving the quality of the “ventilation chamber” technique for surveying the radon exhalation rate continuously

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Abstract

The “ventilation chamber” technique is unreplaceable when the radon exhalation rate is surveyed continuously. The air pressure difference between the chamber and the environment that leads the increase of radon exhalation rate can be reduced by increasing the diameter of the air input tube. A sufficient condition for a standard measurement is the air change rate has to be far larger than the effective decay constant in the measurement. When the sufficient condition is false, the measured value of the radon exhalation rate from the custom model is incorrect and it decreases with the air change rate. A new model is proposed to obtain the effective decay constant and the real radon exhalation rate. The influence of thoron on the radon monitor without discrimination ability of the thoron increases with the flow rate. Finally, another sufficient condition is proposed to obtain the radon exhalation rate when the radon distribution in the chamber is inhomogeneous but steady.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 11075049, 11375058, 11375083), the Excellent Talents Program of Hengyang Normal University of China, the Construct Program of the Key Discipline in Hunan province and the Cooperative Innovation Center for Digitalization of Cultural Heritage in Ancient Villages and Towns. The authors appreciate Mr. Jordan Powell for providing the language editing service. We also thank Prof. Xiao, Tokonami and Dr. Hosoda for their suggestions and help.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Physics and Electronics, Hengyang Normal University, Hengyang, 421008, Hunan, China

    Yanliang Tan

  2. Department of Radiation Physics, Institute of Radiation Emergency Medicine, Hirosaki University, Hirosaki, Aomori, 036-8564, Japan

    Hiromi Kudo-Yokota, Chanis Pornnumpa & Paitoon Wanabongse

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  1. Yanliang Tan
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  2. Hiromi Kudo-Yokota
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  3. Chanis Pornnumpa
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  4. Paitoon Wanabongse
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Correspondence to Yanliang Tan.

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Tan, Y., Kudo-Yokota, H., Pornnumpa, C. et al. Improving the quality of the “ventilation chamber” technique for surveying the radon exhalation rate continuously. Stoch Environ Res Risk Assess 29, 2101–2106 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00477-014-1011-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00477-014-1011-3

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