An improved passive CR-39-based direct 222Rn/220Rn progeny detector with 3 detection channels was designed and tested in this study to measure and calculate equilibrium equivalent concentration (EEC) of both 222Rn and 220Rn without the equilibrium factor. A theoretical model was established to calculate the EEC with optimization. Subsequently, an exposure experiment was carried out to test the performance of this detector, and we compared the chamber experiment and the theoretical model by estimating and measuring various parameters. The deposition flux of progeny derived from the prediction agreed well with the value measured in the exposure chamber. The energy-weighted net track density (NTD) measured by this detector is much more reliable to reflect the linear relation between NTD and time-integrated EEC. Since the detector is sensitive to the exposure environmental condition, it is recommended to apply the detector to measure the EEC after its calibration in a typical indoor environment.
Keywords: 220Rn progeny; 222Rn progeny; CR-39; deposition velocity; equilibrium equivalent concentration.