ScholarWorks@한국철도기술연구원

초록

Suspension of particulate matter (PM) in indoor spaces, which increases risk of negative impact on occupants’ health from exposure to PM, is influenced by humidity level in the indoor environment. The goal of this study is to investigate the property of size-resolved PM suspension in accordance with the relative humidity through simulation chamber experiments which reflect the indoor environmental characteristics. The relative humidity of simulation chamber is adjusted to 35%, 55% and 75% by placing it inside a real-size environmental chamber which allows artificial control of climatic conditions (e.g., temperature, humidity). At the respective humidity conditions, PM suspension concentration caused by occupant walking is analyzed by particle size (0.5-0.8, 0.8-1.0, 1.0-2.5, 2.5-3.5, 3.5-4.5, 4.5-5.5, 5.5-8.0, and 8.0-10 ㎛). Irrespective of the particle size, the suspension concentration reveals a decreasing tendency as the relative humidity increases. Furthermore, a one-way analysis of variance (one-way ANOVA) test statistically verifies that the suspension concentration has a significant difference depending on the indoor relative humidity level. In addition, as the relative humidity increases, a proportion of the suspended particles with 0.5-2.5 ㎛ diameter decreases, while that with 2.5-3.5 ㎛ diameter increases. The reason is considered that the humidity has an effect on adhesion and coagulation forces of the particles.

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