Plume Model: A Simple Approach to Air Quality Control

Abstract

Air is an essential element in the life of humans, and everyone deserves to breathe in clean air. But anthropogenic activities from industrialization and modernization, as well as some natural disasters such as earth quake and volcanic eruption pollute the air. Consequently, air pollution threatens the health of people living in close proximity to the source of pollution by causing or aggravating sicknesses like, heart problem, cancer and respiratory disorder. The dispersion of air from a point source tends to follow the shape of Gaussian or normal statistical distribution. The present paper aims at examining Gaussian plume model as the easiest and simplest model among the lists of air dispersion models evaluated, stating the various issues from the source to the receptors. Gaussian Plume model is mostly used in the analysis of air dispersion with the concentration of a given place, having function of the distance from the source, emission rate and the meteorological data, mostly temperature, wind speed and wind direction, with the help of some various assumptions, in order to estimate how much air has reduced or travelled from the source and the concentration at the ground level. The model uses Briggs coefficients sigma y and z to get both vertical and horizontal dispersion. Plume rise determines dispersion and transportation levels, and thereby affect the distance to maximum ground level concentration and the maximum ground level concentration, the taller the stack or chimney (source), the larger the plume and the lower the concentration at the ground. A week analysis on pollutants generated from Larfarge cement factory Sagamu, Ogun State was carried out. The result shows mathematical simulation of Gaussian plume model of pollutants concentrations from the source and the applicability of the model.