Science of the Total Environment 637–638 (2018) 1081–1097

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Science of the Total Environment

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/scitotenv

Investigation of sub-slab pressure field extension in specified granular fill

materials incorporating a sump-based soil depressurisation system for
radon mitigation
Le Chi Hung a,b,c, Jamie Goggins b,c,⁎, Marta Fuente a,b,c, Mark Foley a
a
School of Physics, National University of Ireland Galway, Ireland
b
Civil Engineering, College of Engineering & Informatics, National University of Ireland Galway, Ireland
c
Centre for Marine and Renewable Energy (MaREI), Ryan Institute, National University of Ireland Galway, Galway, Ireland

H I G H L I G H T S G R A P H I C A L A B S T R A C T

• The subslab pressure field extension

(SPFE) was examined by CFD simula-
tions.
• The SPFE is critical for a soil
depressurisation (SD) system.
• CFD simulations were validated to be
suitable for design of the SD systems.
• Air permeabilities of soil and granular
fill material strongly affect on the SPFE.
• The SPFE varies with wall cracks, slab
airtightness and thickness of fill
material.

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: Design of bearing layers (granular fill material layers) is important for a house with a soil depressurisation (SD)
Received 9 March 2018 system for indoor radon mitigation. These layers should not only satisfy the bearing capacity and serviceability
Received in revised form 29 April 2018 criteria but should also provide a sufficient degree of the air permeability for the system. Previous studies have
Accepted 30 April 2018
shown that a critical parameter for a SD system is the sub-slab pressure field extension in the bearing layers,
Available online 14 May 2018
but this issue has not been systematically investigated. A series of two-dimensional computational fluid dynamic
Editor: D. Barcelo simulations that investigate the behaviour of the sub-slab pressure field extension developed in a SD system is
presented in this paper. The SD system considered in this paper consists of a granular fill material layer and a
Keywords: radon sump. The granular fill materials are ‘T1 Struc’ and ‘T2 Perm’, which are standard materials for building
Radon in the Republic of Ireland. Different conditions, which might be encountered in a practical situation, were exam-
Granular fill materials ined. The results show that the air permeability and thickness of the granular fill materials are the two key factors
Building construction which affect the sub slab pressure field extension (SPFE) significantly. Furthermore, the air permeability of native
Soil depressurisation system soil is found to be a fundamental factor for the SPFE so that it should be well understood when designing a SD
CFD simulations
system. Therefore, these factors should be considered sufficiently in each practical situation. Finally, a significant
improvement of the pressure field extension can be achieved by ensuring air tightness of the SD system.
© 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction

⁎ Corresponding author at: Civil Engineering, College of Engineering & Informatics,

Radon (222Rn) is a product of the decay chain of uranium (238U)
National University of Ireland Galway, Ireland. present in soils and rocks. It is a colourless, odourless, tasteless gas
E-mail address: jamie.goggins@nuigalway.ie (J. Goggins). which has been identified as a human carcinogen by the World Health

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2018.04.401
0048-9697/© 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
1082 L.C. Hung et al. / Science of the Total Environment 637–638 (2018) 1081–1097
pipe
Wall crack
Ground surface
Radon sump
Sand layer
Concrete slab Fan box
Granular fill material
Footing
Native soil
Fig. 1. A schematic diagram of a house with a SD system.
Organisation (WHO), the International Agency for Research on Cancer
(IARC) and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) (ICRP,
2010; Pacheco-Torgal, 2012; Yarmoshenko et al., 2016). Previous stud-
ies have proven that the outdoor radon concentration globally is be-
tween 5 Bq/m3–15 Bq/m3 which does not pose a health risk (Gunning
et al., 2014; WHO, 2017). However, a high indoor radon concentration,
i.e. over 200 Bq/m3, will significantly impact the indoor air quality and is
a cause of lung cancer through the decay of radon's short−lived daugh-
ter products resulting pulmonary cell DNA damage (Pacheco-Torgal,
2012; Lopez-Abente et al., 2018).
To minimise the indoor radon concentration, various techniques
might be considered for buildings. These techniques include the active
and passive soil depressurisation (SD), sealing of the slab, membranes,
ventilation of unoccupied spaces, and ventilation of occupied spaces.
However, the active and passive SD techniques have proven to be the
most effective techniques for indoor radon prevention and mitigation
(Gadgil et al., 1991; Bonnefous et al., 1992; Gadgil et al., 1994; Rydock
and Skaret, 2002; WHO, 2009; Abdelouhab et al., 2010).
A SD system can be built by a granular fill material layer with the use
of various suction components such as sumps, wells or perforated pipes
(Jiránek, 2014). However, the SD system that was the subject of this
study consists mainly of a granular fill material layer and a radon
sump (Fig. 1). The principle of the SD system is to decrease the subslab
Wall crack position
BH
Ground surface Concrete slab
Observation line 1 Granular material layer
Observation line 2
Native soil
(a)
Fig. 2. (a) Typical numerical domain geometry of a SD system. (b) A typical mesh with 5 mm mesh size (extracted at the sump area).
pressure [i.e., the suction pressure developed in the granular fill (per-
meable) layer beneath the concrete slab], thus reversing the entry
path of radon from soil into the building, as well as extracting gas
trapped in the granular fill layer (Gadgil et al., 1991; BRE, 1998;
Andersen, 2001; Jiránek and Svoboda, 2007; Abdelouhab et al., 2010;
Vazquez et al., 2011; Jiránek, 2014). From this assumption, it is inferred
that the subslab pressure field extension (SPFE) is the most critical issue
that affects the effectiveness of a SD system.
Previous studies have suggested that various parameters would in-
fluence the effectiveness of a SD system significantly. These parameters
are the air permeability (kah) of granular fill material, the air permeabil-
ity of native soil (kas), effective particle size (def) of the granular fill ma-
terial, width of wall crack (wcrack), radon sump size, airtightness of the
slab, moisture content and atmospheric conditions (Gadgil et al.,
1991; Turk et al., 1991; Bonnefous et al., 1992; Gadgil et al., 1994; BRE,
1998; Andersen, 2001; Johner and Surbeck, 2001; Jiránek and
Svoboda, 2007; Jelle, 2012; Baeza et al., 2018). In addition to the degree
of permeability of granular fill materials required for effective perfor-
mance of SD systems, these materials act as bearing layers for buildings
are thus required to have adequate bearing capacity, as well as meet
certain serviceability criteria (NSAI, 2016a). This work investigates the
effects of the above parameters on the SPFE of the SD systems. Two di-
mensional (2D) computational fluid dynamic (CFD) simulations are
adapted. Various parameters, such as kah, kas, def, wcrack, sump width
(wsump), sump depth (dsump), thickness of the granular fill layers (t),
and airtightness of the slab, are considered.
2. Computational fluid dynamic simulations
CFD simulations could be a useful tool in the design of a SD system. It
allows engineers and researchers to understand the working mecha-
nism of the system, thus enabling them to design without conducting
trial experimental tests. The commercial CFD package Ansys FLUENT
version 15.0 (Ansys, 2013) was used in this study. The SD systems
were adopted following the configuration defined in the Irish standard
I.S.888:2016 (NSAI, 2016a) for radon mitigation. An urban family
house of 64 m2 (8 m × 8 m) was simulated. Typical numerical mesh of
the house is shown in Fig. 2. The SD system includes a 15 cm thick con-
crete slab, a 50 mm thick sand layer above granular fill layers. Details of
granular materials will be discussed in the next section.
All simulations were performed under transient analysis obeying the
Reynolds−Averaged Navier−Stokes (RANS) realizable k–ω turbulence
model. However, all results were obtained once steady state conditions
were reached. The k–ω turbulence model was adopted because it pro-
vides more accuracy in comparison with the other models, e.g. Laminar,
k–ε, and Reynolds Stress models (Ansys, 2014). The quadrilateral ele-
ment type was applied for meshing. Numerical mesh was generated
by applying a maximum size of 5 mm. However, in the crack area
where its domain size is changed with the change of wcrack, the mesh
Concrete slab
Sand layer
Sump
Granular
material layer
(b)
 L.C. Hung et al. / Science of the Total Environment 637–638 (2018) 1081–1097 1083

Table 1 were conducted to determine the optimal values for BV and BH and
Boundary conditions for the CFD simulations. the numerical mesh so that they do not affect the final results. The opti-
Boundary Type Momentum mal BV and BH values were found to be 2 and 3.5 times the total thick-
Sump Outlet Prelative = −100 Pa
ness t, i.e. t = 0.9 m, of the granular fill layer.
Wall crack (wcrack N 0) Inlet (or opening) Prelative = 0 Pa
Imperfectly sealed slab Inlet (or opening) Prelative = 0 Pa
Ground surface Inlet (or opening) Prelative = 0 Pa 3. Parametric study and material properties
Wall crack (wcrack = 0) Wall No slip wall
Perfectly sealed slab Wall No slip wall
Bottom of the domain Wall No slip wall Three types of granular fill materials to form the permeable layer of
Left side of the domain Wall No slip wall the SD systems are investigated. They are the ‘T1 Struc’, the ‘T2 Perm’
Note: Prelative is the pressure relative to the reference pressure at 102300 Pa (1.01 atm).
and the ‘Hybrid’ materials, as defined in the Irish standard
I.S.888:2016 (NSAI, 2016a), as shown in Fig. 3. The ‘Hybrid’ material is
made by layering the ‘T1 Struc’ and the ‘T2 Perm’ materials. The thick-
size is remotely divided to be smaller than 5 mm. For example, a crack ness t of the granular fill layers is varied in this study and will be de-
has wcrack = 7.5 mm, the mesh size in this crack area is divided at scribed in the next sections. The Irish standard I.S. 888:2016 (NSAI,
3.75 mm. If a crack has a width of 1 mm then the mesh size on this 2016a) states that maximum thickness of a permeable layer in a SD sys-
crack area is defined as 1 mm. This procedure is applied identically for tem is 0.9 m. The footing dimensions were simulated at 0.5 m width and
all simulations conducted in this study. To ensure a numerical con- 0.9 m depth from the ground surface.
verged solution, the residual convergence criterion for velocity was set The wall crack and airtightness of the concrete slab of a house affect
to be 10−4, and the scaled energy residual was 10−6 in all simulations the effectiveness of its SD system significantly. A wall crack might de-
(Ansys, 2014). velop along the joint of a wall and a slab. In this study, the width of
By applying symmetric conditions, only half of the entire system was the wall crack (wcrack) was assumed to vary at 0 mm, 0.5 mm, 1 mm,
simulated (Fig. 2). The bottom and the left side of the system were fixed 1.5 mm, 2 mm, 3 mm, 5 mm, 7.5 mm, 10 mm, and 20 mm. The airtight-
with the wall boundary conditions, i.e. no air flow is allowed. The open- ness could be defined as the perfectly and imperfectly sealed labs. A per-
ing boundary condition is applied at the ground surface. This boundary fect seal could exist in a newly built house with good quality
condition is also applied for the wall crack and the imperfectly sealed construction details between the concrete slab and wall. For example,
slab. Suction pressure, Psump, was applied at the side and the bottom a perfect seal could be formed by using proper radon membranes
of the sump. All boundary conditions applied in CFD simulations are under the slab with good construction practice. This perfect seal could
summarised in Table 1. BV and BH indicated in Fig. 2 are the distances prevent soil gas from entering the house through the slab. However, a
to the vertical and horizontal boundaries measured from the bottom perfectly sealed slab might not last for the full life-time of the building.
and the side of the footing, respectively. Preliminary CFD simulations For example, cracks might develop on the surface of an old slab, and

(a) (b)
Fig. 3. Photos of (a) ‘T1 Struc’ and (b) ‘T2 Perm’ granular fill materials. ‘T1 Struc’ and ‘T2 Perm’ are formed by the crushed stone. ‘T1 Struc’ is standardised with grade varied from 0–32 mm.
‘T2 Perm’ is standardised with grade of 4/40 mm according to NSAI (2016b).

124 mm

Fig. 4. Example of two common sump types in used for SD systems in Ireland.
1084 L.C. Hung et al. / Science of the Total Environment 637–638 (2018) 1081–1097

Fig. 5. Particle size distribution test results of Irish ‘T1 Struc’ and ‘T2 Perm’ granular fill materials. Lower and upper bounds for ‘T1 Struc’ and ‘T2 Perm’ materials are standardised in NSAI
(2016b) [adopted from Hung et al., 2018].

radon membranes can deteriorate with time, thus allowing soil gas to
pass through. In this case, an imperfectly sealed slab is expected.
Fig. 4 shows typical radon sumps which have been widely used in
the Republic of Ireland for the SD systems. These sumps have either per-
forated sides [sump type 1, shown in Fig. 4 (a)] or are completely open
at the bottom [sump type 2, shown in Fig. 4 (b)]. Based on the manufac-
turer specifications, each sump has a cross−sectional area of 0.072 m2
with dsump = 0.124 m, as indicated in Fig. 4 (b). For simplicity in the nu-
merical simulations, a square sump with a wsump value of 0.27 m that
has an equivalent sump area and dsump = 0.124 mm was utilised, unless
stated otherwise. The pressure Psump was set at −100 Pa for all cases.
The sub-slab pressures (P) were normalised by this Psump, thus the
final results do not affect by Psump. This assumption was also confirmed
by performing initial simulations at different Psump to make sure this

Fig. 6. Compaction test results for ‘T1 Struc’ and ‘T2 Perm’ granular fill materials [adopted from Hung et al. (2018)].

5m

2.4 m
0.5 m
Se
ct
io
n
#
1

2m 0.77 m
Section # 2 Sump #2
5m
Sump #1
drilled hole
1m 1m

(a) Test hole locations (b) Photo of the house (c) Electric fan on pipe
Fig. 7. Test configuration and photos of the Pilot house in Spain (not to scale).
 L.C. Hung et al. / Science of the Total Environment 637–638 (2018) 1081–1097 1085

Fig. 8. Comparison between experimental measurements and CFD simulations.

assumption is correct. Psump was applied simultaneously at the bottom following equations to represent the pressure loss:
and the side of the sump, unless stated otherwise.
We have previously reported that the kah, porosity (nh), and def are ΔP μ  V C  G  V
three key parameters of granular material required for the design of a ¼ þ ð1Þ
L kah 2
SD system (Hung et al., 2018). Ergun (1952) found that the pressure
loss of fluid flow through a column a granular material is mainly
governed by the kinetic and viscous energy losses, which are dirrectly 1 ð1−nh Þ2
¼ 150  2
ð2Þ
related to these three parameters. Ergun (1952) suggested the kah n3  d h ef

Fig. 9. Effect of a crack on the SPFE with the ‘T2 Perm’ granular fill material layer at observation lines OL1 (at the sump level) and OL2 (at the footing level) for two thicknesses of ‘T2 Perm’
granular fill material (i.e. tT2Perm = 0.2 m and 0.9 m) with a perfectly sealed slab.
1086 L.C. Hung et al. / Science of the Total Environment 637–638 (2018) 1081–1097
3:5  ð1−nh Þ
C¼
n3h  def
where ΔP is the pressure drop, L is the flow length, μ is the dynamic vis-
cosity of air, G is the mass flow rate, V is the air flow velocity, C is the in-
ertial loss coefficient and is a parameter required for the CFD
simulations in this study.
The properties of the ‘T1 Struc’ and ‘T2 Perm’ materials used in this
study were adopted from experimental tests (Hung et al., 2018). Test re-
sults for the particle size distributions and compaction tests of these ma-
terials are shown in Figs. 5 and 6, respectively. From the test results, the
‘T1 Struc’ and ‘T2 Perm’ materials could be classified as the well-graded
and poorly graded granular materials, respectively. Previous studies
have shown that the permeable layer of a SD system should be formed
by a poorly graded granular material (US-EPA, 1993; BRE, 1998). There-
fore, it would be expected that the ‘T1 Struc’ fill layer would induce a
poor SPFE in a SD system in comparison with that formed by the ‘T2
Perm’ material.
According to NSAI (2016b), the ‘T1 Struc’ granular fill material has a
wide range of particle size between 0 and 32 mm (formed by crushed
stone) or 0–40 mm (formed by gravel) and is classified as a well-
compacted material. The ‘T2 Perm’ has a grade of 4 mm–40 mm, and
is relatively difficult to compact in comparison with the ‘T1 Struc’ mate-
rial. The ‘T1 Struc’ and ‘T2 Perm’ materials reported in the work of Hung
et al. (2018) were formed by crushed stone. The following equations
were applied to determine the input parameters for the ‘T1 Struc’ mate-
rial as follows:
kahðT1StrucÞ ¼ 20  10−9 e−1:25mnc
a) wcrack = 0.5 mm
b) wcrack = 20 mm
Fig. 10. Example of the SPFE contours for tT2Perm = 0.2 m with a perfectly sealed slab.
for 1% ≤ mnc ≤ 4.5%,where mnc is the compaction moisture content of the
ð3Þ
‘T1 Struc’ material. The mnc values for ‘T1 Struc’ was varied at 1%, 1.5%,
2%, 2.5%, 3%, 3.5%, 4% and 4.5%. mnc of the ‘T2 Perm’ was not considered
in this study as the trend of its compaction degree is unclear, as shown
in Fig. 6 (b).
nhðT1StrucÞ ¼ 0:23 ð5aÞ
when mnc ≤ 2%
nhðT1StrucÞ ¼ 0:28−0:03mnc ð5bÞ
when 2% b mnc ≤ 6%
def ðT1StrucÞ ¼ 1:56 e−0:83mnc ð6Þ
when 1% ≤ mnc ≤ 4:5%
The kah(T2Perm) and nh(T2Perm) values of the ‘T2 Perm’ material were
fixed at 22.5 × 10−9 m2 and 0.37 respectively for all simulations,
whereas its def(T2Perm) value was taken as the d50 value on its grading
curve [Fig. 5 (b)]. The air permeability of soil kas was set to be kas =
10−4 × kah(T2Perm) for all simulations, unless stated otherwise. The po-
rosity of soil was fixed at 0.3. The air used in CFD simulations has a den-
sity of 1.225 kg/m3 with a viscosity of 1.7894 × 10−5 kg/(m·s).
Abbas et al. (1999) found that the air permeability of 28 − day aged
concrete could vary from 0.2 × 10−16 m2 to 0.8 × 10−16 m2. Diallo et al.
(2015) reported a measurement of the air permeability of the concrete
slab from the MARIA house in France. They found that the effective air
ð4Þ permeability of the concrete slab was 1.69 × 10−10 m2. Therefore, the
 L.C. Hung et al. / Science of the Total Environment 637–638 (2018) 1081–1097
air permeability of the concrete slab was set at 0.5 × 10−16 m2 and 1.69
× 10−10 m2 for perfectly and imperfectly sealed slabs, respectively.
4. Validation of the CFD simulation
The reliability and suitability of the CFD simulations should be con-
firmed. Therefore, the accuracy of the CFD simulations in this study
were validated by comparing the CFD results with experimental test re-
sults from a Pilot house in Spain (Vazquez et al., 2011) and from the test
results from the MARIA house reported by Abdelouhab et al. (2010) and
Abdelouhab (2011).
4.1. Case I: Spanish pilot house measurements
SPFE measurements were conducted in the Pilot house in Spain
(Vazquez et al., 2011). The SD system of the house consists of a 1 m
× 1 m sump, with 15 cm of granular fill material and 10 cm of the con-
crete slab. The sump was placed at the centre of the house. The area of
the slab is 25 m2, as shown in Fig. 7 (a). The kah value of 9 × 10−8 m2
of the granular fill material was obtained in the laboratory. To generate
sump pressure, a 30-Watt electric fan was connected to the pipe that
goes from the sump centre as shown in Fig. 7 (c). A highly accurate pres-
sure sensor with accuracy of ±0.25% (Honeywell TruStability™, Golden
Valley, MN, USA) was used to measure the SPFE.
Measurements were performed at seven different holes drilled
through the concrete slab at various distances from the sump centre
[sections #1 and #2 in Fig. 7 (a)]. Interval distance between each hole
is 0.5 m. The maximum fan speed was activated, and an average sump
pressure of approximately −20.5 Pa was recorded, and SPFEs are
Fig. 11. Effect of a crack on the SPFE with the ‘T2 Perm’ granular fill material layer (imperfectly sealed slab) at observation lines OL1 (at the sump level) and OL2 (at the footing level) for two
thicknesses of ‘T2 Perm’ granular fill material (i.e. tT2Perm = 0.2 m and 0.9 m) with an imperfectly sealed slab.
1087
shown in Fig. 8(a). Each measurement was conducted at least three
times (approx. 1 h/measurement). As shown in Fig. 8(a), the SPFEs are
homogenous with the pressure varied in between 19.5 Pa to 20.5 Pa.
This finding suggests that the slab of the pilot house was well treated
to minimise crack developed on the slab with a sufficient permeable
layer built under the slab.
To validate the CFD simulations with the measurement of the Span-
ish Pilot house, 2D CFD simulations were conducted. Boundary condi-
tions and configurations were defined as discussed above. The kas of
soil was set at 10−12 m2 (Vazquez, 2017). Comparisons between the
CFD simulation results and those of the measurement are presented in
Fig. 8 (a). It is found that the CFD simulations agree with the test data
with an average error of ±2%.
4.2. Case II: French MARIA house
Abdelouhab et al. (2010) and Abdelouhab (2011) reported experi-
mental measurements for the SPFE in the MARIA house in France. The
house had a floor area of 81 m2 with a 40-cm thick gravel layer. Diallo
et al. (2015) reported that this gravel had a kah value of 10−7 m2 and
the soil beneath the house had a kas value of 2.61 × 10−13 m2. All bound-
ary conditions for CFD simulations were defined following Abdelouhab
et al. (2010) and Abdelouhab (2011). Comparison between CFD simula-
tion results and the test results is shown in Fig. 8(b). An average error of
±5.6% was found between the CFD simulations and the measurements.
Based on the above comparisons, it can be concluded that the CFD
simulations are reliable. Therefore, the CFD simulations could be prop-
erly used to analyse the pressure field extension behaviour of a SD
system.
1088 L.C. Hung et al. / Science of the Total Environment 637–638 (2018) 1081–1097
5. Numerical results and discussions
All SPFE results presented in this work were monitored at the obser-
vation lines OL1 (at the sump level) and OL2 (at the footing level). These
observation lines have been defined in Fig. 2.
5.1. Effects of a wall crack on the SPFE
This section presents the effect of a wall crack on the SPFE of the SD
systems. The results presented in this section were investigated at dif-
ferent wcrack values, as mentioned previously. The ‘T2 Perm’ and the ‘Hy-
brid’ granular materials to form the permeable fill layers of the SD
systems were considered. The thickness of these fill layers were set
in accordance with the standard I.S. 888: 2016 (NSAI, 2016a). For
the ‘T2 Perm’ fill layer, the thickness t was set at two different values,
i.e. tT2Perm = 0.2 m and 0.9 m, whereas that for the ‘Hybrid’ fill layer
the thickness of each sub-layer are t T2Perm = 0.2 m and t T1Struc =
0.7 m for the ‘T2 Perm’ and the ‘T1 Struc’, respectively. The effects
of varying tT2Perm and tT1Struc will be further discussed in Section 5.4.
Both perfectly and imperfectly sealed slabs were simulated.
5.1.1. SD system with ‘T2 Perm’ material fill layers
Fig. 9 presents the SPFEs of the SD systems using the ‘T2 Perm’ gran-
ular fill material with thicknesses of tT2Perm = 0.2 m [Fig. 9 (a, b)] and
0.9 m [Fig. 9 (c, d)] for the case of a perfectly sealed slab. For tT2Perm =
0.2 m, the SPFEs decrease dramatically when wcrack varied from
0.5 mm to 1.5 mm, and the differential rate of the normalised pressure
(P/Psump) reduces at wcrack N 1.5 mm. For example, at the horizontal
a) wcrack = 0.5 mm
b) wcrack = 20 mm
Fig. 12. Example of the SPFE contours for the ‘T2 Perm’ granular fill material layer (tT2Perm = 0.2 m) with an imperfectly sealed slab.
distance of 4 m from the sump centre, P/Psump = 1 for wcrack = 0 mm
and P/Psump = 0.6 for wcrack = 1.0 mm, as shown in Fig. 9 (a). For
tT2Perm = 0.9 m, this differential rate is smaller, as shown in Fig. 9
(c, d). The reduction of the SPFE occurs because the air flow resis-
tance decreases through the wall crack when the crack becomes
wider, i.e. a larger amount of air enters the granular fill layer, thus re-
ducing the pressure from the crack side to the sump side, as shown in
Fig. 10. Figs. 11 and 12 show the SPFE for the case of a imperfectly
sealed slab. A similar explanation can be applied as discussed
above. The pressures for the imperfectly sealed slab are smaller
than that of the perfectly sealed slab, as expected. In addition, as
can be seen from these figures, the SD system with tT2Perm = 0.9 m
induces higher SPFEs in comparison with those for tT2Perm = 0.2 m.
This finding suggests that the thicker the ‘T2 Perm’ layer, the better
the SPFE. This observation will be examined further in Section 5.4.
5.1.2. SD system with ‘Hybrid’ granular material
Fig. 13 shows the SPFEs for the SD systems with the ‘Hybrid’ granular
fill layers (tT2Perm = 0.2 m and tT1Struc = 0.7 m) with perfectly and im-
perfectly sealed slabs. The properties of the ‘T1 Struc’ were obtained
using Eqs. (4)–(6). The compaction moisture content mnc was consid-
ered at 4%. The same boundary conditions applied in Section 5.1.1 are
also applied here. As shown in Fig. 13, similar findings were observed
for the ‘Hybrid’ material in comparison with that for the case of
tT2Perm = 0.2 m presented in Section 5.1.1. This similarity could be
a result of a low permeability degree of the ‘T1 Struc’ material, as it
does not provide a good SPFE at its low kah value at mnc = 4%.
 L.C. Hung et al. / Science of the Total Environment 637–638 (2018) 1081–1097
Fig. 13. Effect of a crack on the SPFE with the ‘Hybrid’ granular fill material layers (i.e. 0.2 m ‘T2-Perm’ over 0.7 m ‘T1-Struc’) at observation lines OL1 (at the sump level) and OL2 (at the
footing level) for a perfectly sealed slab [(a), (b)] and an imperfectly sealed slab [(c), (d)].
5.2. Effects of mnc of the ‘T1 Struc’ material on the SPFE
The effects of mnc of the ‘T1 Struc’ on the SPFEs were investigated for
the SD systems with the ‘Hybrid’ granular fill layers and the ‘T1 Struc’
granular fill layer alone. The mnc was varied at 1%, 1.5%, 2%, 2.5%, 3%,
3.5%, 4% and 4.5%, and the wcrack value was fixed at 1.5 mm for all sim-
ulations. For the SD system with the Hybrid granular fill layer, tT2Perm
and tT1Struc were set at 0.2 m and 0.7 m, respectively. For the ‘T1 Struc’
layer alone, the tT1Struc was fixed at 0.9 m. Both perfectly and imperfectly
sealed slabs were considered. Simulation results for the Hybrid fill layer
are shown in Fig. 14. The pressures decrease slightly with the increase in
the mnc for both perfectly and imperfectly sealed slabs, as the pressure is
trapped inside the ‘T2 Perm’ sub-layer fill layer due to low kah(T1Struc)
and kas. This phenomenon is in contrast with that for the ‘T1 Struc’ fill
layer, as shown in Fig. 15. The SPFEs decrease significantly when mnc in-
crease. For example, at the distance of 4 m from the sump centre, a nor-
malised pressure of 0.62 was obtained when mnc = 1% [high kah(T1Struc)],
whereas that was 0.1 when mnc = 4.5 [low kah(T1Struc)].
Therefore, in order to have a high SPFE, the mnc value should be low
enough, e.g. mnc ≤ 3% with relatively good airtightness of the slab. An ex-
ample of the pressure contours for mnc = 4% with the imperfectly sealed
slab is shown in Fig. 16. As can be seen, the SPFEs decrease rapidly from
the sump centre. From these findings, it is suggested that the ‘T1 Struc’
material is not an optimal option to form a permeable layer for a SD sys-
tem. It is also evident that an imperfectly sealed slab will result in a sig-
nificant reduction of the SPFE.
5.3. Effects of the kas value on the SPFE
An important factor for the design of the foundation for a house is
to characterise the properties of the native soil. This characterisation
1089
will allow designers to define accurately the type of foundation that
should be used to support the house. In addition, if a SD system is
required for the house, the kas value is a key parameter. Practically,
kas is expected to affect the effectiveness of a SD system. For example,
a significant pressure loss in the system would occur if the native soil
had a relatively high k as , as a significant airflow might enter the
system from the ground surface outside the house causing pressure
loss.
In this section, the effects of the kas values were investigated. Only a
perfectly sealed ground bearing slab was considered to minimise the ef-
fects of the pressure loss through the slab. The SD systems with the ‘Hy-
brid’ and ‘T2 Perm’ granular fill material layers were examined. For the
‘Hybrid’ case, tT1Struc and tT2Perm were fixed at 0.7 m and 0.2 m, respec-
tively. The mnc value of the ‘T1 Struc’ was set at 4%, as it is expected to
be in practice. Five kas values were assigned for the soil with the ratio
of kah(T2Perm)/kas which were varied at 1, 10, 102, 103 and 104. The wall
crack was specified as wcrack = 1.5 mm.
The SPFEs for different kas values are shown in Fig. 17. For the SD
system with the ‘T2 Perm’ granular fill layer, the pressures are similar
at kah(T2Perm)/kas ≥ 102 at the same horizontal distance along the two ob-
servations lines (i.e. at the sump and foundation levels). However, a sig-
nificant reduction is observed at kah(T2Perm)/kas b 102 for all cases. For
example, at the horizontal distance of 4 m from the sump centre,
when kah(T2Perm)/kas = 102, the ratio P/Psump is found to be 0.75 and
this ratio reduced to 0.65 and 0.34 at kah(T2Perm)/kas = 10 and 1, respec-
tively. This significant reduction in the SPFE can be explained by a signif-
icant amount of airflow entering the granular fill layer from the ground
surface outside the house when kas is high, thus reducing the air resis-
tance of the system [Fig. 18(b)].
However, an insignificant reduction of pressure is obtained in the
fill layer with the ‘Hybrid’ fill layers at the sump level (OL1) [Fig. 17
1090 L.C. Hung et al. / Science of the Total Environment 637–638 (2018) 1081–1097
Fig. 14. Effect of the mnc values of the ‘T1 Struc’ granular fill material on the SPFE with the ‘Hybrid’ granular fill layers at observation lines OL1 (at the sump level) and OL2 (at the footing
level) for a perfectly sealed slab [(a), (b)] and an imperfectly sealed slab [(c), (d)].
(c)], and a significant pressure loss is found at the foundation level
(OL2) [Fig. 17 (d)] at k ah(T2Perm)/k as ≤ 102. These findings are sup-
ported by monitoring the air flow paths, as shown in Fig. 18. For
the ‘T2 Perm’ fill layer with kah(T2Perm)/kas = 104, the air flow paths
occur predominantly in the granular fill layer, whereas those occur
predominantly in both fill layer and granular soil when kah(T2Perm)/
kas = 1. For the ‘Hybrid’ fill layers with kah(T2Perm) /kas = 1, the air
flow paths occur in both the soil and fill layers, and a significant pres-
sure loss is observed in the soil whilst good SPFEs maintained in the
fill layer.
Thus, it is inferred that the ‘T1 Struc’ could work as a barrier layer to
minimise pressure loss in the granular fill layer of a system due to a high
kas. Therefore, the ‘Hybrid’ granular fill material might be preferred, and
the ‘T1 Struc’ sub-layer should be well compacted at high compaction
degree (e.g., mnc ≥ 4%) below the ‘T2 Perm’ sub-layer, especially if the
native soil has a high permeability degree in comparison with that of
the ‘T2 Perm’ material.
5.4. Effects of the variation of tT2Perm and tT1Struc
As discussed in Section 5.3, the ‘Hybrid’ granular fill layers might
be preferred in some cases, for example when kas is high or when a
soil improvement is required because of soft soil. Moreover, a greater
thickness of ‘T2 Perm’ layer (tT2Perm) induces better pressure field ex-
tension when the granular fill layer is formed by the ‘T2 Perm’ mate-
rial, as discussed previously. Hence, it is expected that the same
principle could be applied for the ‘Hybrid’ granular fill layer.
According to the Irish standard I.S. 888: 2016 (NSAI, 2016a), the
tT2Perm value might vary from 0.2 m to 0.9 m. The selection of the tT2Perm
will depend on an actual situation of the native soil and requirement of
the SD system. In this section, the thickness tT2Perm was varied at 0 m,
0.2 m, 0.4 m, 0.6 m and 0.9 m, while maintaining the total thickness of
the ‘Hybrid’ granular layer (tT2Perm + tT1Struc) at 0.9 m. Both perfectly
and imperfectly sealed slabs are examined. The wcrack value was set at
1.5 mm for all cases.
The simulation results are shown in Fig. 19. The best PSFE is ob-
tained for t T2Perm = 0.9 m, whereas t T1Struc = 0.9 m induces the
worst, as the ‘T2 Perm’ material has much higher kah in comparison
with that of the ‘T1 Struc’ material. In addition, as tT2Perm becomes
larger, this will allow the SPFE gradient to develop deeper and
wider in the fill layer. It also can be seen that the SPFE increases sig-
nificantly when the tT2Perm increases from 0.2 m to 0.4 m for all cases.
From the results presented in Fig. 19, it is suggested that the optimal
thickness of the ‘T2 Perm’ might be considered in between 0.2 m to
0.6 m depending on the actual design condition, for example founda-
tion soil condition and air tightness of the house. In addition, these
 L.C. Hung et al. / Science of the Total Environment 637–638 (2018) 1081–1097 1091

Fig. 15. Effect of the mnc values of the ‘T1 Struc’ granular fill material on the SPFE with the ‘T1 Struc’ granular fill material layer at observation lines OL1 (at the sump level) and OL2 (at the
footing level) for a perfectly sealed slab [(a), (b)] and an imperfectly sealed slab [(c), (d)].

Fig. 16. Example of the SPFE contours for tT1Struc = 0.9 m (mnc = 4%) with an imperfectly sealed slab.
1092 L.C. Hung et al. / Science of the Total Environment 637–638 (2018) 1081–1097
Fig. 17. Effect of the air permeability of soil on the SPFE at observation lines OL1 (at the sump level) and OL2 (at the footing level) for a perfectly sealed slab over ‘T2 Perm’ granular fill
material [(a), (b)] and the ‘Hybrid’ granular fill material layers [(c), (d)].
results re-confirm that the ‘T1Struc’ is not an optimal option to be a
permeable layer for a SD system.
5.5. Effect of sump type and sump size
The suitability of sump types has not been well documented. Fur-
thermore, the sump size might also affect the PSFE. Previous studies
designed their sumps at different sizes. For example, Abdelouhab
(2011) designed a sump by a concrete block approximately 0.5 m ×
0.5 m × 0.5 m with circular holes made on each side of the block,
whereas Vazquez et al. (2011) built a relatively large sump with a di-
mension of 1 m × 1 m × 0.5 m formed by conventional perforated
bricks. In Ireland, the plastic sumps with the octangular shape
(Fig. 3) (effective area of 72,000 mm2 and height of 124 mm) have
been widely used. Therefore, the effect of sump size should also be
examined.
Fig. 20 presents the effects of the sump type on the PSFE. The ‘Hybrid’
granular fill layer with tT2Perm = 0.2 m and tT1Struc = 0.7 m was consid-
ered, as this could be the worst case for the PSFE to be monitored if there
is any improvement from the sump type. wcrack was 1.5 mm with both
perfectly and imperfectly sealed slabs were investigated. As shown in
the figure, the PSFEs are practically identical for both sump types. It
means that both sump types in the Irish market are suitable for use in
the SD systems.
Fig. 21 shows the effect of sump sizes on the SPFE. The wsump and
dsump were investigated separately. To investigate the effect of the
sump width, the wsump values are varied at 0.14 m, 0.27 m, 0.5 m,
0.75 m and 1 m, whilst maintaining dsump = 0.124 m. Similarly, to inves-
tigate the effect of the sump depth, the dsump are varied at 0.124 m,
0.2 m, 0.4 m, 0.6 m whilst keeping wsump = 0.27 m. All values of
wsump and dsump are indicated in the figure. The pressures were found
to be slightly increased with the increase in the wsump and dsump. This
finding suggests that at a specific sump pressure, the sump size does
not affect the pressure field extension significantly.
5.6. Effect of footing shape and dimension
In practical design, different shapes of strip footings can be used.
Therefore, they might affect the SPFE of a SD system. The footing can
be either partially embedded with the top of the footing on the ground
surface [Figs. 2 and 22(a)] or fully embedded (Fig. 22b). This section dis-
cusses the effects of footing shape and dimension on the SPFE for four
different cases with partially and fully embedded footings. Case 1 - par-
tially embedded footing: The footing has the embedment depth of 0.9 m
and footing width of 0.5 m, which are the same as that analysed in the
previous sections. Case 2 - partially embedded footing: The footing has
the embedment depth of 0.4 m and footing width of 0.5 m. Case 3-
fully embedded footing: The footing width and embedment depth are
set at 0.65 m and 0.4 m, respectively. Case 4-fully embedded footing:
The footing width and embedment depth are set at 0.4 m and 0.4 m,
respectively.
The footing thickness was fixed at 200 mm for Cases 3 and 4 (ECLG,
2012). The granular fill layer is formed with the ‘T2 Perm’ at tT2Perm =
0.4 m. A perfectly sealed slab and a wcrack = 1.5 mm are considered
 L.C. Hung et al. / Science of the Total Environment 637–638 (2018) 1081–1097
Air flow path
a) kah(T2Perm)/kas =104, T2 Perm fill
Air flow path
b) kah(T2Perm)/kas =1, T2 Perm fill layer
Air flow path
c) kah(T2Perm)/kas =1, Hybrid fill layer
Fig. 18. Example of the air flow paths developed in the granular fill layers with different air permeability.
for all cases. Pressure contours obtained from Case 2 and 3 are presented
in Fig. 22, and SPFE obtained at OL1 and OL2 are shown in Fig. 23. As
shown in the figures, the SPFE are similar within the slab area for all
cases. For these specific cases, the shape and dimension of a strip footing
have an insignificant influence on the effectiveness of a SD system.
6. Discussion
The results presented in this paper address the effect of different
factors on the SPFE of a SD system. The impact level of each factor
would depend on an actual practical situation. Previous studies
have confirmed that the main entry mechanism of Radon gas into
buildings is convection which is related to the pressure difference
between the indoor air and soil/granular fill layers beneath the
floor slab (Collignan, 2018). In addition, the design of a SD system
should focus mainly on decreasing the pressure in the permeable
granular fill layers beneath the floor slab of a buildings (Jiránek,
2014). Therefore, the air extract ability of the permeable layer and
airtightness of the slab would be two key issues.
1093
The air extract ability of a permeable granular fill layer is greatly in-
fluenced by its kah, nh and def values, whereas the airtightness of the sub-
slab strongly depends on development of crack and air permeability of
the native soil. Bonnefous et al. (1992) experimentally proved that by
carefully sealing crack along the wall of a house, the SPFE in the perme-
able layer could increase significantly. Similar observation was reported
in the works of Jiránek and Svoboda (2007), and Jiránek (2014). They
showed that high SPFEs were obtained for houses with good air-
tightness of the sub-slab. In addition, Jiránek and Svoboda (2007) also
found that the ratio of kah/kas is an important factor with higher kah/kas
ratios induce higher SPFEs.
In buildings, the bearing layer beneath the foundation and floor
should be designed appropriately. This should include a good com-
paction process and should have a sufficient thickness to ensure
the bearing capacity and serviceability criteria as well as to have
good degree of permeability of granular fill material layers beneath
the floor and foundation. Therefore, thickness of the granular layer is
also an important factor that should be addressed before any further ac-
tion is taken.
1094 L.C. Hung et al. / Science of the Total Environment 637–638 (2018) 1081–1097

Fig. 19. Variation the SPFE at various tT2Perm and tT2Struc at observation lines OL1 (at the sump level) and OL2 (at the footing level) for a perfectly sealed slab [(a), (b)] and an imperfectly
sealed slab [(c), (d)].

This study investigated the SPFE in specified granular fill materials perforated pipes instead of a radon sump (Jiránek and Svoboda, 2007;
incorporating a sump-based SD system only. Previous research has Jiránek, 2014). Therefore, further investigation is required to assess
shown that the SPFE in a SD system could be generated using drainage the performance of perforated pipe-based SD systems.

Fig. 20. Effect of sump types on the SPFE at observation lines (a) OL1 (at the sump level) and (b) OL2 (at the footing level) for a perfectly sealed slab and an imperfectly sealed slab.
 L.C. Hung et al. / Science of the Total Environment 637–638 (2018) 1081–1097
Fig. 21. Effect of sump sizes on the SPFE with the ‘T2 Perm’ granular fill material layer (tT2Perm = 0.9 m) at observation lines OL1 (at the sump level) and OL2 (at the footing level).
7. Conclusion
A series of transient CFD simulations have been conducted to inves-
tigate the behaviour of the pressure field extension of SD systems for
radon mitigations. The results showed that the wall crack and airtight-
ness of the concrete slab of the house affected the PSFE significantly.
Good SPFEs were observed if the granular fill layers were formed by
the ‘T2 Perm’ material.
The ‘T1 Struc’ fill layer induces poor SPFEs. This suggests that the ‘T1
Struc’ material is not an optimal option to be the permeable layer of the
SD system. The compaction moisture content (mnc) of the ‘T1 Struc’ ma-
terial do not affect the SPFEs of the ‘Hybrid’ granular fill layer that con-
tains ‘T2 Perm’ on top of ‘T1 Struc’, and its ‘T1 Struc’ sub-layer might
work as a barrier layer to prevent pressure loss of the system.
The thickness of the ‘T2 Perm’ layer (tT2Perm) plays an important
role to the SPFE. The presures increase with the increase of the
tT2Perm. In addition, the soil with a high air permeability (kas) will in-
duce a poor SPFE for a SD system. For this case, a design approach
might be considerd by using the ‘Hybrid’ granular fill layers with a
‘T1 Struc’ material having a high compaction moisture content, e.g.
mnc ≥ 4%, to improve the SPFE.
At a specified pump suction pressure (Psump), the sump type and
sump size do not affect significantly the SPFE of the SD system. How-
ever, selection of sump types might be based on the practice experience,
as well as each individual design condition.
1095
The results presented in this study apply to the conditions consid-
ered only, i.e., based on the design parameters for the ‘T1 Struc’ and
‘T2 Perm’ granular materials in the Republic of Ireland. However, the re-
sults might be adopted to analyse the SPFE of SD systems formed with
different permeable granular materials. For a proper design, it is sug-
gested that a suitable kah/kas ratio should vary in between 102 and 104,
and the air permeability of the permeable layer should fall in the mag-
nitude of 10−8 to 10−9 m2.
Finally, the results reported in this study were obtained from 2D CFD
simulations, which did not consider a number of complexities; for ex-
ample the effects of slab shape, wall corner, sump shape, limited area
of the house, and limited granular material types.
Acknowledgments
This study is a part of the OPTI-SDS project, which is funded by the
Irish Environmental Protection Agency through Grant No. 2015–HW–
MS5. The authors wish to acknowledge the DJEI/DES/SFI/HEA Irish Cen-
tre for High-End Computing (ICHEC) for the provision of computational
facilities and support required for the CFD simulations. The authors
would like to thank the University of Cantabria research group in Spain
for their support during measurements in the Pilot house, and the CSTB
research group for their experimental test data. The second author would
like to acknowledge the support of Science Foundation Ireland through
the Career Development Award programme (Grant No. 13/CDA/2200).
1096 L.C. Hung et al. / Science of the Total Environment 637–638 (2018) 1081–1097

(a)

(b)

Fig. 22. Pressure contour development for two strip footings with different shape and dimension. (a) Case 2: Partially embedded footing with footing width = 0.5 m and embedment depth =
0.4 m. Footing for Case 1 has the same shape and width but the embedment depth = 0.9 m. (b) Case 3: Fully embedded footing with footing width = 0.65 m and embedment depth = 0.4 m.
Footing for Case 4 has the same shape and embedment depth but width = 0.4 m. The pressure contours for Cases 1 and 4 show a similar trend thus are not presented here.

Fig. 23. Pressure development for strip footings with different shape and dimension.

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