Total surface area in indoor environments. 2019

Archit Manuja, and Jenna Ritchie, and Khantil Buch, and Yaoxing Wu, and Clara M A Eichler, and John C Little, and Linsey C Marr
Civil and Environmental Engineering, Virginia Tech, 1145 Perry Street, Blacksburg, VA, USA. lmarr@vt.edu.

Certain processes in indoor air, such as deposition, partitioning, and heterogeneous reactions, involve interactions with surfaces. We have characterized the surface area, volume, shape, and material of objects in 10 bedrooms, nine kitchens, and three offices. The resolution of the measurements was ∼1 cm. The ratio of surface area with contents to that without contents did not vary by type of room and averaged 1.5 ± 0.3 (mean ± standard deviation) across all rooms. The ratio of the volume minus contents to nominal volume averaged 0.9 ± 0.1 and was lower for kitchens compared to bedrooms and offices. Ignoring contents, the surface-area-to-volume ratio was 1.8 ± 0.3 m-1; accounting for contents, the ratio was 3.2 ± 1.2 m-1, or 78% higher. These two ratios did not vary by type of room and were similar to those measured for 33 rooms in another study. Due to substantial differences in the design and contents of kitchens, their ratios had the highest variability among the three room types. The most common shape of surfaces was flat rectangular, while each room also had many irregularly-shaped objects. Paint-covered surfaces and stained wood were the two most common materials in each room, accounting for an average of 42% and 22% of total surface area, respectively, although the distribution of materials varied by room type. These findings have important implications for understanding the chemistry of indoor environments, as the available surface area for deposition, partitioning, and reactions is higher and more complex than assumed in simple models.

UI MeSH Term Description Entries
D008420 Manufactured Materials Substances and materials manufactured for use in various technologies and industries and for domestic use. Manufactured Material,Material, Manufactured,Materials, Manufactured
D006798 Housing Living facilities for humans. Family-Patient Lodging,Patient-Family Lodging,Family Patient Lodging,Family-Patient Lodgings,Lodging, Family-Patient,Lodging, Patient-Family,Lodgings, Family-Patient,Lodgings, Patient-Family,Patient Family Lodging,Patient-Family Lodgings
D006801 Humans Members of the species Homo sapiens. Homo sapiens,Man (Taxonomy),Human,Man, Modern,Modern Man
D013499 Surface Properties Characteristics or attributes of the outer boundaries of objects, including molecules. Properties, Surface,Property, Surface,Surface Property
D016902 Air Pollution, Indoor The contamination of indoor air. Air Quality, Indoor,Indoor Air Pollution,Indoor Air Quality,Pollution, Indoor Air
D062206 Spatial Analysis Investigative techniques which measure the topological, geometric, and or geographic properties of the entities studied. Kernel Density Estimation,Kriging,Spacial Analysis,Spatial Autocorrelation,Spatial Dependency,Spatial Interpolation,Analyses, Spacial,Analyses, Spatial,Analysis, Spacial,Analysis, Spatial,Autocorrelation, Spatial,Autocorrelations, Spatial,Density Estimation, Kernel,Density Estimations, Kernel,Dependencies, Spatial,Dependency, Spatial,Estimation, Kernel Density,Estimations, Kernel Density,Interpolation, Spatial,Interpolations, Spatial,Kernel Density Estimations,Krigings,Spacial Analyses,Spatial Analyses,Spatial Autocorrelations,Spatial Dependencies,Spatial Interpolations

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