Correlations for predicting air permeabilities and 222Rn diffusion coefficients of soils

The rate of 222Rn gas transport through earthen materials controls 222Rn releases to the atmosphere and to indoor environments. The key soil-related parameters characterizing 222Rn transport in earthen materials are the 222Rn diffusion coefficient and the soil air permeability. Simple correlations have been developed for predicting the 222Rn diffusion coefficient and the air permeability of soils based on fraction of water saturation, total porosity, and arithmetic mean particle diameter. Correlations are based on 1,073 diffusion coefficient measurements and 137 soil air permeability measurements. The geometric standard deviations between the correlation predictions and the measurements are 1.98 for the diffusion coefficients and 2.31 for the soil air permeabilities.