AAAR 34th Annual Conference
October 12 - October 16, 2015
Hyatt Regency
Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA
Abstract View
Source-oriented, Micro-environmental Modeling of Cerium Oxide Nanoparticles in an Urban Environment
ALESHKA CARRION-MATTA, K. Max Zhang, Havala Pye, Brett Gantt, Kathleen Fahey, Robert Willis, Cornell University
Abstract Number: 149 Working Group: Health Related Aerosols
Abstract Cerium oxide nanoparticles have been used as fuel-borne catalyst in the bus fleet in Europe as a way to promote clean combustion. Despite decreasing NOx and PM mass emissions, the use of these additives increases the number emission of cerium-containing nanoparticles. Level of human exposure to these particles and the environmental impacts associated with the use of these additives are still unknown. In this study, we simulated the exhaust emission of ceria particles by using a 3-dimensional (3D), multicomponent source-oriented aerosol model to predict the size distribution, chemical composition and mixing state of the exhaust particles. This model coupled aerosol dynamic processes with transport of exhaust particles from its source to ambient background, simulated using a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model in an urban environment in UK where extensive field measurements were conducted. The advantage of using this model is to provide a realistic representation of near-road processes. Outcomes from this model will help determine the level of exposure to the cerium-containing nanoparticles in microenvironments.