Abstract
The purpose of this thesis is to document design, development, and fabrication of a transportable source of dry aerosol to improve testing and validation of atmospheric plume models. The proposed dispersion apparatus is intended to complement improved sampling equipment and provide a reliable, reproducible basis for experimental validation of predictions from plume dispersion models. The device constructed and demonstrated in this project is a controllable point source able to disperse dry aerosols at rates in excess of 100 g/s from a flexible exhaust duct. The solid particles, with diameters less than 125 []m (micrometers), are dispersed in an exhaust stream with a volumetric flow of up to 0.71 m/s (1500 cfm) at velocities up to 20 m/s (4000 fpm). The feed rate is controllable so the researcher can respond to changes in the wind velocity vector and maintain a material feed when stack output is likely to propagate from the source to the sampling point. This feed rate is a factor of 10x higher than used in previous studies attempting to test the hypothesis that the Fritz-Zwicke-Meister dispersion model is an improvement over the ISC3-ST model now commonly used to predict downwind concentrations from industrial sources.
Bala, William D (2001). Particulate dispersion apparatus for the validation of plume models. Master's thesis, Texas A&M University. Available electronically from
https : / /hdl .handle .net /1969 .1 /ETD -TAMU -2001 -THESIS -B33.