Module 9

Atmospheric Stability
Photochemistry
Dispersion Modeling

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Preliminaries

FCQs?
Seminar Monday DLC 11am Air quality in California
Pizza Party! May 2 6pm, the Sink
3rd midterm
here in this classroom
Thursday May 4 9:30am - 10:45 am

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QuickTime and a
TIFF (Uncompressed) decompressor
are needed to see this picture.

Gaussian Plume

Transport of contaminants downwind of their

point of discharge
Predict ground-level concentrations
Problem statement
Emissions from a point source: buoyant pollutant
stream exiting a stack of geometric height, h
Plume rises a distance, h (plume rise)
Stack gas transported downwind, pollutants
dispersed vertically and horizontally
Horizontal dispersion by molecular and eddy
diffusion
Vertical dispersion by atmospheric stability

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Advection-Diffusion
Equation
Conservation of Mass equation:

C r r
+ CU D 2C S+L =0
t

accumulation
Advective flux due
to fluid flow

Generation loss
Molecular flux due to
concentration gradient

Assumefluidincompressible,windblowsconstantlyinXdirection,
useKtheoryforturbulentdiffusion,steadystate:

C 2C
2C
U
K y 2 +K z 2 =0
x
z
y

SolutiontotheaboveequationiscalledGaussianPlumeequation

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Group Clicker Question

The Gaussian Model of plume
dispersion tells us that the
concentration at some point
downwind from the stack is
linearly related to the ______.
a. average wind speed at stack height
b. emissions rate
c. vertical distance from ground level
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2 ?
2 ??
? ? ?2 ?? ? ?
?? ?
?
?
?
?
?
?
Q
1 y
1 zH
1 z H ??
?
C(x,y,z) =
exp? ?? ?? ? exp? ?
? ? + exp? ?
? ??
?
2u y z
?? 2 ? z ? ???
?? 2 ? y ? ??? ?? 2 ? z ? ??

QuickTime and a
TIFF (Uncompressed) decompressor
are needed to see this picture.

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Stability Classes
The tendency of the atmosphere to
resist or enhance vertical motion and
thus turbulence is termed stability
Stability is related to both the change
of temperature with height (the lapse
rate) and wind speed
Quiz question: Which stability class depicts the
most unstable atmosphere?
a. A
b. C
c. E

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Project Prairie Grass

QuickTime and a
TIFF (Uncompressed) decompressor
are needed to see this picture.

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Project Prairie Grass

Conducted during the summer of 1956 in flat,
open prairie country in northcentral Nebraska
70 trials, released sulfur dioxide continuously
for a 10-minute period
Sulfur dioxide in the cloud measured by
sensors located along arcs from 50 to 800
meters downwind of the point of release

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Project Prairie Grass

Observations used from this and similar
experiments to see how quickly a gas cloud
spreads outwards under different atmospheric
stability classes. Pasquill, Gifford, Briggs, and
others then developed equations to describe
this spreading
Note that during the experiments, most
measurements made at < 1 km, only a few
made at 10 km. So?

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Group clicker question?

Which atmospheric stability
produces the highest ground-level
centerline concentration nearest
to the stack using the Gaussian
model?
a. stable
b. neutral
c. unstable
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Hospital Waste Example

It is common practice for the infectious waste
collected at hospitals to be burned in on -site
incinerators. The presence of chlorinated
plastics in these wastes lead to the production
of polychlorinated dioxins (PCDD) that are
released to the atmosphere from the exhaust
gases. Because hospitals are centrally located
in densely populated areas, the potential for
human exposure to these toxic chemicals is
large. As sources of air pollution, these
incinerators are largely unregulated and
uncontrolled.

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Hospital Waste Example

Provide an assessment of the total
human exposure to PCDD using the
Gaussian plume model.
a) Determine for typical meteorological
conditions, the location of the maximum
ground-level concentration downwind of the
incinerator
b) Calculate the ground-level concentration at
the position determined in part a
c) Assuming that incineration is the best
disposal method for infectious waste, discuss
options for reducing the maximum PCDD
concentrations downwind.

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Example Contd
Note: although the waste bags are fed to the incinerator
intermittently, you may assume for this analysis that the
emission rate is constant.
You may treat the ground as a perfectly reflecting source

Average occupancy is 350 beds

Production rate of waste to be burned in 1135 kg/mo per 100 beds
10% of waste by weight consists of chlorinated plastics
0.1% of the chlorinated plastic mass is released as PCDD
Stack height is 15 m
Mean wind speed is 5 m/s
The dispersion coefficients may be represented by (stability class
D):
b 0.764 and for z, a = 0.140, b = 0.727
where for y, a = 0.219,
b=
i =ax
and the dispersion coefficients are in meters

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