• Journal of the Korean Recycled Construction Resources Institute
• /
• v.10 no.1
• /
• pp.117-123
• /
• 2022

Recently, due to COV ID-19, many people are spending most of their time indoors. So, there is a rising interest on the indoor air quality in the field of building construction. The main sources for the indoor air pollution are human indoors activity, building materials, living supplies and the polluted air from outdoor. The Korean government has designated 17 indoor air pollutants including fine dust, total airborne bacteria, fungi and carbon dioxide, etc.. Most people are always exposed to assorted bacteria and molds in our daily life, because indoor environment for human, moderate temperature are humidity, it is favourable to the growth of most of bacteria and fungi. Pine needles have an antibacterial effect against bacteria and fungi. In this study, the antibacterial activity against bacteria and fungi was tested by cement matrix using pine needle extract. As a result, the cement matrix using pine needle extract showed antibacterial activities against bacteria, but in the case of fungi, it did not show antifungal activity.

• Journal of the Korean Wood Science and Technology
• /
• v.35 no.5
• /
• pp.24-37
• /
• 2007

The Korean Ministry of Environment started controlling indoor air quality (IAQ) in 2004 through the introduction of a law regulating the use of pollutant emitting building materials. The use of materials with formaldehyde emission levels above $1.25 mg/m^2{\cdot}h$ (JIS A 1901, small chamber method) has been prohibited. This level is equivalent to the $E_2$ grade ($>5.0mg/{\ell}$) of the desiccator method (JIS A 1460). However, the $20{\ell}$ small chamber method requires a 7-day test time to obtain the formaldehyde and volatile organic compound (VOC) emission results from solid building interior materials. As a approach to significantly reduce the test time, the field and laboratory emission cell (FLEC) has been proposed in Europe with a total test time less than one hour. This paper assesses the reproducibility of testing formaldehyde and TVOC emissions from wood-based composites such as medium density fiberboard (MDF), laminate flooring, and engineered flooring using three methods: desiccator, perforator and FLEC. According to the desiccator and perforator standards, the formaldehyde emission level of each flooring was ${\le}E_1$ grade. The formaldehyde emission of MDF was $3.48 mg/{\ell}$ by the desiccator method and 8.57 g/100 g by the perforator method. To determine the formaldehyde emission, the peak areas of each wood-based composite were calculated from aldehyde chromatograms obtained using the FLEC method. Formaldehyde, acetaldehyde, propionaldehyde, butyraldehyde and benzaldehyde were detected as aldehyde compounds. The experimental results indicated that MDF emitted chloroform, benzene, trichloroethylene, toluene, ethylbenzene, m,p-xy-lene, styrene, and o-xylene. MDF emitted significantly greater amounts of VOCs than the floorings did.

• Journal of health informatics and statistics
• /
• v.42 no.4
• /
• pp.309-316
• /
• 2017

Objectives: Radon and its progeny pose environmental risks as a carcinogen, especially to the lungs. Investigating factors affecting indoor radon concentrations and models thereof are needed to prevent exposure to radon and to reduce indoor radon concentrations. The purpose of this study was to identify factors affecting indoor radon concentration and to construct a comprehensive model thereof. Methods: Questionnaires were administered to obtain data on residential environments, including building materials and life style. Decision tree and structural equation modeling were applied to predict residences at risk for higher radon concentrations and to develop the comprehensive model. Results: Greenery ratio, impermeable layer ratio, residence at ground level, daily ventilation, long-term heating, crack around the measuring device, and bedroom were significantly shown to be predictive factors of higher indoor radon concentrations. Daily ventilation reduced the probability of homes having indoor radon concentrations ${\geq}200Bq/m^3$ by 11.6%. Meanwhile, a greenery ratio ${\geq}65%$ without daily ventilation increased this probability by 15.3% compared to daily ventilation. The constructed model indicated greenery ratio and ventilation rate directly affecting indoor radon concentrations. Conclusions: Our model highlights the combined influences of geographical properties, groundwater, and lifestyle factors of an individual resident on indoor radon concentrations in Korea.

• Journal of the Regional Association of Architectural Institute of Korea
• /
• v.20 no.6
• /
• pp.1-8
• /
• 2018

In generally, the estimation work regarding building mechanical service system in comparison with other architectural estimations is time-consuming, and the process is continuously getting more difficult because of the increased usage of the attached piping materials such as fittings and supports in addition to their complicated construction processes. In order to improve this problem, the Korean authority provides a simple method to estimate the attached material rate regarding the main piping material, which is the most time-consuming work in the architectural mechanical estimation. However, to be an applicable method on construction site, a proper conversion rate of the attached piping material is still required for the proposed method regarding building usage and working types. Therefore, the purpose of this research is the suggestion of the material and labor cost rate of the attached piping materials such as the fittings and supports by work types and fitting methods of indoor fire, sprinkler, and extinguishing gas piping work of mechanical fire protection facilities in office buildings that have been designed after 2010.

• Korean Journal of Construction Engineering and Management
• /
• v.8 no.2
• /
• pp.118-126
• /
• 2007

Environmentally Sound and Sustainable Development (ESSD)" is a key word in recent years. The construction industry, have put a great influence on ergonomic and sustainable environment. Recently, "green building certifications", such as Indoor Air Quality (IAQ) and eco-friendly material regulation have been established. With this regard, new construction and aged-housing remodeling projects are required to meet these certification criteria. Apartment residents have great concern on eco-product, since many cases are reported that Sick Building Syndrome is caused by toxic substance from building materials. Aged-housing remodeling construction has a unique characteristic in that the residents are already determined prior to construction execution. Therefore, the analysis of resident's need for building materials in aged-housing remodeling is relatively easy compared to new building construction. As such, it is very important to analyze their preferences for eco-friendly materials prior to project execution. The purpose of this study is to find the needs of residents and priority of their needs. Based on their needs and priority, this paper provides a new strategy in using environment-friendly materials and maximizing their satisfaction level when aged housing remodeling is constructed. In addition, this paper provide new criteria in selecting new developed environmental materials in remodeling projects for the purpose of improving the safety and health level in construction industry.

• Journal of the Korean housing association
• /
• v.21 no.5
• /
• pp.93-101
• /
• 2010

The purpose of the study is to investigate the behaviors for ventilation to control indoor air quality and characteristics of the maintenance for ventilation equipments by multi-family housing residents. This study was conducted by the survey in the area of Seoul and Kyungki-do. The results of the study are as follows: the majority of respondents conduct ventilation once a day, below 20 minutes with opening some windows of the inside of the house. The time for ventilation is generally between 9-11 am. and 5-7 pm. Most of the wives are responsible for ventilation activities. In addition, so far building materials and furniture are not seriously considered as the source of indoor air pollution by the respondents. Their satisfaction for indoor air before and after ventilation is perceived as just the level of average. As the mechanical ventilation equipments such as a hood and an exhaust fan, half of the respondents are using them frequently. However, the ventilation equipments are not maintained well. Specially maintenance and checks for exhaust fans are hardly conducted. In conclusion, the frequency of ventilation is very limited and residents show passive attitudes about ventilation and maintenance of ventilation equipments. Therefore, for the actualization of healthy housing, educational programs and guidelines on the way of ventilation targeting the residents should be set up and a certain organization has to check periodically the performance of the ventilation equipments of each house in the multi-family housing complex.

• Archives of design research
• /
• v.18 no.3 s.61
• /
• pp.181-190
• /
• 2005

Although the national government prepares and implements planning for securing various services and facilities based on the needs of welfare centers for leisure of the aged according to the increase of life expectancy. These efforts are still beyond the satisfaction for the needs of the aged. These efforts are only polling on in terms of the increase in quantity, and so therefore there is total lack of high level of welfare facilities for the aged with regard to the consumers' characteristics and behavior attitudes. Under these considerations, this study aims at investigating through indoor space check list, the reality of whether the present welfare centers for the aged are designed with the application of the characteristics and behavior attitudes of the aged to the indoor space. The results of this study are going to be utilized as basic materials for future designs that may consider the behavioral attitudes of the aged and be able to increase their quality of leisure and welfare when building welfare centers for the aged in the future.

• Analytical Science and Technology
• /
• v.23 no.2
• /
• pp.138-146
• /
• 2010

The Korean Ministry of the Environment revised a few sections of the regulations in the Law of indoor air quality management for the reinforcement or adjustment of the regulation criteria standard for releasing pollutants from building materials. Especially, in case of sealant, the contents covering liquid building materials, excess standards and testing methods have been added simultaneously in this revision, As a result it is impossible to compare original standards with revised standards directly. For this reason, this study reviewed revised test method of sealant pollutant emission rates in terms of impact and validity in comparison with the original test method. Through this study, the basic properties of revised pollutant emission control standards was assessed. Especially in sealant, since each product has a wide deviation of time required for complete drying, it is proved that there are a large number of products that are not hardened completely in test time. The result of our experiments on the revised test methods showed that this revised test methods yield emission rates that are two and half times less than those of the original testing method. To apply the revised test method of sealant to all the sealant products, It is necessary to extend the test period or improve specimen to fit the test method for quickly drying sealant products.

• Journal of the Korean Wood Science and Technology
• /
• v.38 no.5
• /
• pp.385-390
• /
• 2010

This study was carried out to manufacture very thin natural elm veneer overlaid charcoal board for enhancing aesthetic value of charcoal board for the indoor application, and to use the advantageous properties of the charcoal as a building material for solving the sick house problem. The thin elm veneer had 26.9% opening ratio. The experiment results showed that the spreading area and the nonvolatile content of adhesive did not affect the gas adsoprtion of fancy veneer overlaid charcoal board. The natural thin elm veneer overlaid charcoal board enhanced not only the aesthetic beauty but also showed the same gas adsorption by the charcoal board.

• Journal of Institute of Control, Robotics and Systems
• /
• v.12 no.6
• /
• pp.580-584
• /
• 2006

Material information for environment may be useful to accomplish mobile robot localization. A procedure to classify a set of indoor materials (glass, steel, wood, aluminum and concrete) with the reflected signal of ultrasonic sensor is proposed in this paper. The main idea is to use material-specific reflection characteristics for the recognition of material type. To achieve the classification task, we modeled reflected signal as a maximum amplitude with respect to distance. In this way, we can generate echo signal models for the given materials and these models are used to compare with the current sensor reading. The experimental results show that the proposed method may give material information during map building task of mobile robot.