• Journal of the Korean Solar Energy Society
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• v.25 no.3
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• pp.37-45
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• 2005

Higher requirement of advanced building design code and the development of construction technique have resulted in more thermal and air tight buildings. This has caused the sick building syndrome in a indoor air quality has been relatively getting worse. A new concept with a solar fresh air heating and electrostatic precipitator or called as STCC(Solar Transpired Collector and Cyclone) has been proposed to solve this IAQ issue. This paper describes the assessment study of STCC system under different outdoor airflow rates. The experiment was carried out under real condition with 30CMM STCC system test facility. Incense smoke was used to study the particle concentration decay trends under outdoor airflow rates 0CMM, 10CMM, 20CMM, 30CMM, with applied voltages of 5kV and 15kV for collecting and discharging electrodes of an Electrostatic Precipitator. Result shows that the particle decay increases by increasing the outdoor airflow rates. The collection efficiency, dust cleaning effectiveness(P) and application area calculation result comparisons have also been studied. This factors could be used to estimate how a dust of indoor air quality(IAQ) and removed for a building space with a STCC system.

• Journal of Environmental Science International
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• v.17 no.7
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• pp.767-774
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• 2008

This study was carried out to evaluate the characteristics of atmospheric concentrations of volatile organic compounds(VOCs) and aldehydes for near a large shipyard. Most of the painting work in marine coating is performed indoor and outdoor. Most of the VOCs are emitted to the atmosphere as the paint is applied and cures. The massive scale of a ship makes it difficult to capture the emissions from outdoor painting. The VOCs are an important health and contributors to photochemical smog. The VOCs and aldehydes samples were collected using adsorbent tube and 2,4-DNPH cartridge, and were determined by an automatic thermal desorption coupled with GC/MS and HPLC-UV analysis, respectively. A total of 16 aromatic VOCs and 12 aldehydes of environmental concern were determined. At indoor coating facilities, the most abundant compound among 16 target VOCs appeared to be m,p-xylene, being followed by o-xylene. But most of the aldehydes were extremely lower concentrations. The atmospheric concentration of VOCs, m,p-xylene concentrations were the highest and the mean value were outdoor workshop 11.323 ppb, residental area 5.134 ppb, and green area 2.137 ppb, respectively. However, the most aldehydes were extremely lower concentrations such as formaldehyde, acetaldehyde and non-detection such as iso-valeraldehyde, n-valeraldehyde and o-tolualdehyde.

• Journal of Environmental Health Sciences
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• v.32 no.5 s.92
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• pp.398-403
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• 2006

Indoor air quality can be affected by indoor sources, ventilation, decay and outdoor levels. Understanding the effectiveness of indoor air quality control depends on knowledge of the characteristics of air pollutants in indoor air, especially their quantities and persistence, and the relevance of indoor sources to these factors. Toluene within new and established houses has been determined and factors significant to its presence have been identified. A total of 30 selected houses in Seoul, Asan and Daegu areas that were constructed within 4 years and over 4 years of construction were measured the concentration of toluene from July to September in 2004. Toluene emission decay of double-exponential model exhibited good fit of $Y=276.37e^{-1.21x}(R^{2}=0.34,\;P=0.06)$ for 2 years and then $Y=51.54e^{-0.11x}(R^{2}=0.40,\;P=0.0)$ from 23 years in new houses. In case of living in new houses, noncarcinogenic health effects of exposure to toluene was 1.38 of hazard quotient (HQ) comparing to toluene reference dose of 0.13 mg/kg-day.

• Journal of Environmental Health Sciences
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• v.23 no.4
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• pp.57-66
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• 1997

Successful energy conservation and good indcfor air quality (IAQ) are highly dependent on ventilation system. Air filtration is a primary solution of indoor air control strategies in terms of reducing energy consumption and improving ihdoor air quality. A conventional system with bypass filter, as it is called variable-air-volume/bypass filtration system (VAV/BPFS), is a variation of the conventional variable air volume (VAV) systems, which is designed to eliminate indoor air pollutant and to save energy. Bypass filtration system equipped with a high-efficiency particulate filter and carbon absorbent provides additional cleaned air into indoor environments and maintain good IAQ for human health. The objectives of this research were to compare the relative total decay rate of indoor air pollutant concentrations, and to develop a mathematical model simulating the performance of VAV/BPFS. All experiments were performed in chamber under the controlled conditions. The specific conclusions of this research are: 1. The VAV/BPFS system is more efficient than the VAV system in removing indoor air pollutant concentration. The total decay rates of aerosol, and total volatile organic compound (TVOC) for the VAV/BPFS system were higher than those of the conventional VAV system. 2. IAQ model predictions of each pollutant agree closely with the measured values. 3. According to IAQ model evaluation, reduction of outdoor supply air results in decreased dilution removal rate and on increased bypass filtration removal rate with the VAV/BPFS. As a results, we recommends the VAV/BPFS as an alternative to conventional VAV systems.

• Journal of Environmental Science International
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• v.29 no.6
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• pp.673-682
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• 2020

This study investigates the concentration distribution of aldehydes and volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in the archive of the National Library in Korea and evaluates the health risks to workers from hazardous chemicals. Acetaldehyde had the highest concentration among the nine species of aldehydes present in the archive and the concentration of toluene was the highest among the six species of VOCs. Most of the detected substances showed that their indoor concentrations were higher than the outdoor ones, suggesting the possibility of indoor sources of aldehydes and VOCs. The evaluation of health risks for workers based on these measurement results showed that not all substances were hazardous to the human body. However, considering the possibility of the presence of indoor sources and the potential limits of our study owing its short period, it is necessary to conduct long-term studies on the concentration distribution of indoor pollutants in the archive environment.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Gas
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• v.27 no.4
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• pp.12-18
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• 2023

The effective evacuation strategy according to the accident scenario is crucial to minimize human casualties in the event of toxic gas leak accidents. In this study, the effect of the direction of a building and the location of an industrial complex on the increase in indoor concentration and outdoor diffusion was examined under the same leakage conditions, and effective evacuation criteria were established. In addition, the guidelines for building directions were suggested when constructing buildings that would mitigate human damage caused by chemical accidents. Three scenarios where buildings faced the front, side, and rear of the leakage direction were investigated through CFD simulations. The results revealed that when the building faced the industrial complex, both indoor and outdoor average gas concentrations increased significantly, reaching up to 120 times higher than the other two orientations. Moreover, the indoor space was filled with toxic gas substances more than twice in the same time due to the rapid increase of indoor concentration rate. In cases where the building's windows were positioned at the front, toxic gas stagnation occurred around the building due to pressure differences and reduced flow velocities. Based on our findings, the implementation of these guidelines will contribute to safeguarding residents by minimizing exposure to toxic gas during chemical accidents.

• Korean Journal of Air-Conditioning and Refrigeration Engineering
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• v.25 no.9
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• pp.506-515
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• 2013

The PFT (PerFluorocarbon Tracergas Technique) is of advantage to field surveys for evaluating the ventilation condition, due to its simplicity and convenience. On the other hand, it requires researchers to make some additional considerations that include uncertainties, such as the substance concentration distribution in indoor air, representativeness of a sampler, deviation of emission sources, and analysis error. In this study, the PFT and $CO_2$ tracer gas methods were applied simultaneously, to evaluate the accuracy of PFT on six ventilation conditions in the three-storied detached house. The air exchange and the outdoor air introduction a between and into zones were measured. As the results, deviations of PFT concentration distributions were observed at a sufficiently low level for an accurate determination for a house where the interior height was large, and there were relatively many partition walls. However, when a uniform airflow appeared in the indoor air, it was also validated that the indoor air would be exhausted without sufficient mixing, and consequently the measurement error of the PFT would be large.

• Journal of the Architectural Institute of Korea Structure & Construction
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• v.34 no.12
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• pp.57-63
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• 2018

The purpose of this study was to confirm the effects of flush-out on the reduction of Volatile Organic Compounds(VOCs) concentration in newly built residential buildings. The field measurements were conducted in two complexes of multi-residential buildings which are located suburban areas of Seoul. About three samples of residential buildings were selected in the field measurements. Two samples, B and C, had been flush-out with outdoor air more than seven days. The sample A was maintained at same condition during the flush-out because of the comparison. The indoor concentrations of VOCs in the three samples were measured at three times, before, during, and after flush-out. From the field measurements, it was confirmed that two samples' indoor VOCs' concentrations were considerably decreased after the flush-out comapred with those of the sample A in which the flush-out was not conducted. The decreases of indoor VOCs concentrations were corresponding to about 50% ~ 92% of the concentrations of before. Through the reviews for the previous studies, it was also found that the reduction effects of the flush-out is similar with the those of the bake-out which were reported in the previous studies.

• Journal of Environmental Health Sciences
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• v.45 no.1
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• pp.1-8
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• 2019

Objectives: The purpose of this study was to estimate the ventilation rate of residential homes in Korea through tracer gas methods using indoor and outdoor concentrations of carbon dioxide ($CO_2$) and $CO_2$ generation rates from breathing. Methods: In this study, we calculated the number of occupants in a home by time through data on the average number of people per household from the Korean National Statistical Office and also measured the amount of $CO_2$ generation by breathing to estimate the indoor $CO_2$ generation rate. To estimate the ventilation rate, several factors such as the $CO_2$ generation rate and average volume of residential house provided by the Korean National Statistical Office, indoor $CO_2$ concentrations measured by sensors, and outdoor $CO_2$ concentrations provided by the Korea Meteorological Administration, were applied to a mass balance model for residential indoor environments. Results: The average number of people were 2.53 per household and Koreans spend 61.0% of their day at home. The $CO_2$ generation rate from breathing was $13.9{\pm}5.3L/h$ during sleep and $15.1{\pm}5.7L/h$ in a sedentary state. Indoor and outdoor $CO_2$ concentrations were 849 ppm and 407 ppm, respectively. The ventilation rate in Korean residential houses calculated by the mass balance model were $42.1m^3/h$ and 0.71 air change per hour. Conclusions: The estimated ventilation rate tended to increase with an increase in the number of occupants. Since sensor devices were used to collect data, sustainable data could be collected to estimate the ventilation rate of Korean residential homes, which enables further studies such as on changes in the ventilation rate by season resulting from the activities of occupants. The results of this study could be used as a basis for exposure and risk assessment modeling.

• Journal of Korean Society for Atmospheric Environment
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• v.3 no.2
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• pp.46-52
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• 1987

There are many factors such as airtighteness and high density of merchandises or passengers that contaminate indoor air in underground commercial floor. So it is very important to know air quality and quantity of contamination in underground market increasing in number lately. It was from these viewpoints that gaseous pollutants, dusts and mutagenicity of organic compounds extracted from dusts in an underground market were investigatd. Organic ompounds (tar) were extracted by Soxhlet extractor with benzene as a solvent. Mutagenicities of these extracts were evaluated by the preincubation method using Salmonella typhimurium TA 100 and TA 98 strains with and without S9mix. The results obtained were as follows: It seemed to be under the influence of outdoor air that the concentrations of $CO, CO_2, NO, NO_2$ and dusts were higher in winter than summer. The concentration of $CO_2$ was higher in indoor than outdoor, but the concentration of NOx was similar in both sampling areas. Metal contents in dusts attached to the ventilation ducts were as follows showing in order of high concentration : Fe (9000-22000ppm), Zn(1200-2300ppm) and Pb (280-590ppm). The contents of tar were 6-33% of dusts, and higher than those from dusts collected by high volume air sampler. The extracts from dusts attached to the inlet duct exhibited lower mutagenicity than those from dusts attached to the outlet duct. This finding seemed to suggest that mutagenic substances were in creasing in underground. There was no seasonal difference of mutagenicity toward TA 98. Toward TA 100 in the presence of S9mix, the mutagenicity was about 3 fold higher in winter than summer. The mutagenicities of tar extracted from dusts collected by high volume air sampler were different from those attached to the ventilation ducts. The former showed 2-3 fold higher mutagenicity than the latter toward TA 100. However no difference showed between the former and the latter toward TA 98 in the absence of S9mix, but the former was 4-5 fold higher than the latter in the presence of S9mix.