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USING DRONES TO IMPROVE COMBUSTION SOURCE PLUME DISPERSION MODELS
Citation:
Gullett, B. USING DRONES TO IMPROVE COMBUSTION SOURCE PLUME DISPERSION MODELS. 17th International Congress on Combustion By-Products and Their Health Effects, Preston, N/A, UK, May 08 - 11, 2022.
Impact/Purpose:
This presentation addresses the potential impacts of plumes from open combustion. The presentation describes a planned project using a sensor-equipped unmanned aircraft system to obtain spatial and temporal concentration data for use in calibration dispersion models. Successful development of this method and these models will significantly improve dispersion model predictions for protection of downwind populations and emergency workers. Initially these results will be of most interest to dispersion modelers.
Description:
•Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS, or “drones”) will be used to collect time- and spatially-resolved concentration data from within an open burning smoke plume for use in calibrating near source dispersion models. To our knowledge, this is a unique effort and will provide data heretofore only available from ground-based monitoring or high altitude airplane sampling. The flexibility of the UAS to perform vertical, horizontal, and downwind transects while collecting real time gas and particle concentrations will provide data for determination of dispersion coefficients. Together with local meteorological data, this concentration information will allow better informed prediction of plume paths and further the ability of On-Scene Coordinators to predict worker and downwind populace exposure from emergency responses as well as developing the science of dispersion modeling.
