Prediction of short-term and long-term VOC emissions from SBR bitumen-backed carpet under different temperatures

This paper presents two models for volatile organic compound (VOC) emissions from carpet. One is a numerical model using the computational fluid dynamics (CFD) technique for short-term predictions, the other an analytical model for long-term predictions. The numerical model can (1) deal with carpets that are not new, (2) calculate the time-dependent VOC distributions in a test chamber or room, and (3) consider the temperature effect on VOC emissions. Based on small-scale chamber data, both models were used to examine the VOC emissions under different temperatures from polypropene styrene-butadiene rubber (SBR) bitumen-backed carpet. The short-term predictions show that the VOC emissions under different temperatures can be modeled solely by changing the carpet diffusion coefficients. A formulation of the Arrhenius relation was used to correlate the dependence of carpet diffusion coefficient with temperature. The long-term predictions show that it would take several years to bake out the VOCs, and temperature would have a major impact on the bake-out time.