Deposition of Aerosols and Unattached Radon Daughters in Different Chambers; Theory and Experiment

Abstract

Understanding the deposition (plateout) of radon daughters is important in utilising it either as a control measure or preventing its undesirable interference with measuring apparatus. The Crump and Seinfeld theory used in this study is based on knowledge of the total amount of energy that agitates the air in a given enclosure and its internal surfaces system. If this theory can be worked out successfully for a wider range of environments (from reaction vessels to dwellings and mines) an additional predictive tool will be made available for small size radioactive and non-radioactive aerosols research. Our results show that if the turbulence field, charge and size of the aerosols, and the strength of the surrounding electric field are known, agreement between experiment and theory, for the first time, can be achieved for the unattached and attached radon daughters. The present paper describes experiments carried out in the Bureau of Mines and RUG Nuclear Physics Laboratories.