Effect of partition walls and neighboring buildings on the indoor exposure rate due to cosmic-ray muons.
Numerical calculations were done of the indoor exposure rate due to the cosmic rays. Only muons were considered, and the calculations were done within a two-dimensional framework under the non-scattering approximation. The effects of various structural parameters on the level and the distribution of the exposure rate were studied by a case control method. It was shown that a building's dimensions and the floor thickness were important in all cases. However, the effect of partition walls would become significant only when the partition number is large. The effect of neighboring buildings would be especially important in the lower floors of tall buildings. In such a case, attention is necessary not only to the buildings' internal structures but also to the relationship between that particular building and its neighborhood. The maximum amplitude of the possible variation of the exposure rate due to the change of any single structural parameter would be 30% in ordinary Japanese housing conditions.
D002028:Building Codes; D003252:Construction Materials; D003359:Cosmic Radiation; D004601:Elementary Particles; D004781:Environmental Exposure; D006798:Housing; D006801:Humans; D007564:Japan; D011834:Radiation Monitoring