Pollutant Ground Concentrations of Nonneutrally Buoyant Particles

Alon Mandel*, Eli Stern, Amos Ullmann, Neima Brauner

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

A methodology is suggested for the estimation of the mass density and the cumulative ground deposition of a nonvolatile, nonneutrally buoyant, air pollutant (liquid or solid) released from a polluted column (following an explosion caused during routine operation in, e.g., the chemical industry or due to any kind of hostile act) and deposited on the ground via gravitational settling. In many cases, the deposited mass due to gravitational settling constitutes a significant fraction of the original inventory released from the source. Implementation of the methodology in preliminary risk assessments can serve as an efficient tool for emergency planning for both immediate and long-term measures such as evacuation and decontamination. The methodology considers, inter alia, an estimation of the critical particle diameter, particle size, and mass distributions along the polluted column. This methodology was developed to apply in rural regions since proper application of relevant meteorological input data can be accomplished mainly for such areas.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)2435-2454
Number of pages20
JournalRisk Analysis
Volume37
Issue number12
DOIs
StatePublished - Dec 2017

Keywords

  • Emergency planning
  • gravitational settling
  • ground concentration
  • particle-size distribution
  • risk assessment

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