| Particulate contaminants in indoor environments are of concern for two major reasons. First, exposure to particles has been linked to adverse health effects in humans. Since people spend most of their time indoors, with indoor concentrations comparable to outdoor concentrations, particle exposure occurs primarily indoors. Second, indoor particles cause concern when they deposit onto surfaces. Particle deposition can cause material damage, form a reservoir from which hazardous materials may be resuspended, and lead to contaminant ingestion through contact with dust. In this thesis, the understanding of particle behavior in the indoor environment is advanced. Since deposition is an important and incompletely understood fate of indoor particles and natural convection flow often dominates near surfaces, special attention is paid to the case of deposition from natural convection flow.;Four sets of experiments were performed. The first three investigated deposition of particles (0.1 to 2.5 ;The fifth experiment, conducted at a field site, investigated the principal factors governing airborne particle concentrations in a residence. The results indicated that the building shell was not effective at removing infiltrating particles (1 to 10... |
