title: Single-layer model to predict the source/sink behavior of diffusion-controlled building materials.
abstract: Building materials may act as both sources of and sinks forvolatile organic compounds (VOCs) in indoor air. A strategy to characterize the rate of absorption and desorption of VOCs by diffusion-controlled building materials is validated. A previously developed model that predicts mass transfer between a flat slab of material and the well-mixed air within a chamber or room is extended. The generalized model allows a nonuniform initial material-phase concentration and a transient influent gas-phase concentration to be simultaneously considered. An analytical solution to the more general model is developed. Experimental data are obtained by placing samples of vinyl flooring inside a small stainless steel chamber and exposing them to absorption/desorption cycles of n-dodecane and phenol. Measured values for the material-air partition coefficient and the material-phase diffusion coefficient were obtained previously in a series of completely independent experiments. The a priori model predictions are in close agreement with the observed experimental data.
authors.affiliation: Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, 418 Durham Hall, Blacksburg, Virginia 24061-0246, USA.
authors.forename: Deept
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Kumar
authors.forename: John C
authors.initials: JC
authors.lastname: Little
mesh_terms: D000042:Absorption; D016902:Air Pollution, Indoor / Q000032:analysis*; D003252:Construction Materials; D004058:Diffusion; D005544:Forecasting; D008962:Models, Theoretical