Pollutant Ground Concentrations of Nonneutrally Buoyant Particles.
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.
Noble Energy Inc, Environmental, Health, Safety and Regulatory, Denver, CO, USA.
Alon
A
Mandel
Center for Risk Analysis, Kiryat Ono, Israel.
Eli
E
Stern
Tel Aviv University, Iby and Aladar Fleischman Faculty of Engineering, School of Mechanical Engineering, Tel Aviv, Israel.
Amos
A
Ullmann
Tel Aviv University, Iby and Aladar Fleischman Faculty of Engineering, School of Mechanical Engineering, Tel Aviv, Israel.
Neima
N
Brauner
Emergency planning; gravitational settling; ground concentration; particle-size distribution; risk assessment