Virtual Assessment of air Pollution Dispersion from Anthropogenic Sudden Explosion

Abstract

The control of air pollutants from anthropogenic sources seems almost impossible due to numerous influencing factors present in the atmosphere. In this study, we carried out a virtual mathematical experimentation using Math CAD, Mat lab and analytical approximation to estimate the dimensional impact of initial pollutant plume cloud from a sudden volcanic blast and the dynamics of its wind field. The high point of the experimentation is the period of the first one-tenth of a second (1 deci-second) to 1 min (60 s) of the blast at the point source. We also assessed the long range air pollution dispersion within the first 1 to 10 min of plume cloud released under practical assumptions. The model revealed a plume cloud impact of 6.8×10⁷ µgm^-3 in the first 1 millisecond (0.01 s) which decayed suddenly to a value of 1.7×10⁷ µgm^-3 in the first 1 deci-second (0.1 s). The impact concentration at the point source by the end of the first second (1.0 s) was 3.2×10⁵ µgm^-3 which implied a 99.5% sudden decay when compared with 0.01 s concentration value at the emission point source. It is observed that air pollutants released from explosives/blasts get transported into the atmosphere in the first few seconds by forceful injection instead of by gradual dispersion as is the case with normal air pollutants plume releases. A mathematical control process was propounded (which is still subject to further research) to reduce the quick flow of air pollutants.