FLOW-RATES AND PRESSURE DISTRIBUTIONS PRODUCED BY RADON SUMPS

Radon sumps are widely used as remedial measures to reduce radon level s in houses and other buildings. in many cases they are very effective , but they do nor always succeed. BRE have been working on models of t he behaviour of sumps in order to understand better the way they opera te, and why they might fail. This paper reports on results from a comp utational model of radon sumps, and compares its predictions with thos e from BRE field trials. A resistance to flew is used to characterise the behaviour of the whole sump, house and soil system, and a predicti on for the likely heat cost of running a sump system is made. The resu lts indicate that models can be useful in examining the effectiveness of sumps, and in optimising their design. However, without adequate in formation about the soil below a house it is not possible to predict w ith accuracy the way a sump would operate. This work shows we can char acterise the behaviour of a sump system with a simple resistance to fl ow, and this should prove useful in choosing appropriate size fans for sumps. The results also enable us to predict the likely cost in heati ng terms of the additional ventilation caused by the sump system.