A study on VOC source and sink behavior in porous building materials - analytical model development and assessment

Porous building materials are sources of indoor air pollutants such as VOCs and strong sinks of these pollutants too. To control the indoor VOC concentration levels and to determine the best ventilation requirements for an acceptable IAQ, the knowledge of VOC transfer mechanisms in these materials is a necessary step. The analytical model presented in this paper can predict both primary and secondary VOC source or sink behavior of porous building materials. That model can be applied to differentiate the primary behavior from the secondary one in experimental data and to obtain the generation/elimination functions.