Heavy-Particle Deposition in the Atmospheric Boundary Layer.

A set of experiments of heavy-particle deposition on the ground in a wind-tunnel simulated atmospheric boundary layer has been conducted. Different particle fall velocities and different wind speeds were used. In order to analyze inertial, continuity, and crossing-trajectories effects of heavy particles, a new random-walk model has been developed in which vertical velocity variance is a function of height. For calibration of the numerical model, a set of tracer-gas concentration measurements was also carried out. The analysis of experimental results reveals that, in the atmospheric surface layer, for most of the practical situations, the crossing-trajectories and the inertia of heavy particles have a very limited effect on heavy-particle dispersion and deposition. However, the continuity effect greatly affects the lateral dispersion and deposition of heavy particles. The continuity effect is strongly height dependent. Influences of different factors on heavy-particle deposition are discussed. This includes the fall-velocity distribution of heavy particles, the integral-time scales of turbulent flow, longitudinal turbulent velocity components, release height, etc. Comparisons between the theoretical prediction and the calculated results from both the model used in this study and the model of Legg and Raupach (1982) support the author's approach in which vertical velocity variance is taken to be height dependent. For practical purposes, the new random-walk model has greatly improved the accuracy of predicting longitudinal deposition of heavy particles compared to that of the traditional Gaussian model. Experiments with more release heights and larger differences of particle fall velocity are suggested in order to further confirm the findings of this dissertation.