An Analytical Study for the Dispersion of Pollutants in a Finite Layer under Low Wind Conditions

Abstract

A steady-state three-dimensional analytical model for the dispersion of a pollutant from a continuously emitting point source in a finite inversion layer has been proposed. The advection along the mean wind and the diffusion in all three directions have been accounted. A closed-form analytical solution of the proposed problem has been obtained using the method of integral transform and the same happens out to be non-Gaussian. Various limiting cases including the crosswind integrated concentration and the standard Gaussian-plume formula have been deduced from the solution obtained.

The present model has been evaluated using Hanford diffusion experiment (DORAN et al., 1984) in stable conditions and IIT diffusion experiment (SINGH et al., 1991) in unstable conditions. The dispersion parameters have been computed using the various sigma schemes in accordance with the available observations. The proposed model has performed reasonably well with the data from both the diffusion experiments considered here.