Dr.

A K Gupta
Environmental Engineering and Management,
Department of Civil Engineering,
IIT, Kharagpur 721 302

1.

The city is rectangular with dimensions W and L with one side

parallel to the wind direction.

2.

Atmospheric turbulence produces complete and total mixing of

pollutants up to the mixing height H no mixing above this height.

3.

This turbulence is strong enough in the upwind direction that the

pollutant concentration is uniform in the whole volume of air over
the city and not higher at the downwind side than the upwind side.
This assumption is quite contrary to what we observe in nature but
permits a great simplification of the mathematics.

4.

The wind blows in the x direction with velocity u.

This velocity is constant and is independent of
time, location or elevation above the ground. This
is also contrary to observation; wind speed
increases with elevation. Here we use the average u
between that at ground and that at H.

5.

The concentration of pollution entering the city (at

x = 0) is constant and is equal to b (b for
background concentration). Concentrations in the
model are usually in terms of g/m3.

6.

The air pollutant emission rate of the city is Q (normally

expressed in g/s). This is normally given as an emission per unit
area, q in g/s.m2. We can convert from one to other by
Q= qA

Where A is the area of the city, which equals W times L in this case. This
emission rate is constant and unchanging with time.

7.

No pollutant leaves or enters through the top of box, nor

through the sides that are parallel to wind direction.

8.

The pollutant in question is sufficiently long lived in the

atmosphere that the destruction rate in the mass balance
equation is zero.

 A much simpler, more intuitive approach can be taken to

estimate pollutant concentrations over an area (such as a city)

by using the box model concepts.
Consider the air shed over an urban area to be represented by

a rectangular box, as shown in fig., with base dimensions L

and W and height H.
The box is oriented so that wind, with speed u, is normal to

one side of the box.

 The height of the box is determined by atmospheric conditions,

we would consider it to be just the mixing depth. Emissions per
unit area will be represented by qs (g/m2-s)

Area source, qs
Wind

Ci
n

L
Box model for an air shed over a city

 Consider the air blowing into the box on the

upwind side to have pollutant concentration Cin

For simplicity, assume no pollutants is lost from

the box along the sides parallel to the wind or from

the top.
Assume that the pollutants are rapidly and

completely mixed in the box, creating a uniform

average concentration C.

 Finally treat the pollutants as if they are conservative (that is,

they dont react, decay, or fall out of the air stream).

All of these restrictions can modified in more sophisticated

versions of a box model.

The amount of pollution in the box is the volume of the box

times concentration, LWHC.

The rate at which the air is entering and leaving the box is the

area of either end times the wind speed, WHu, so the rate at
which pollution entering the box is WHuCin.

 The rate that it leaves the box is WHuC.

If we assume the pollutant to be conservative, then we can

write the following mass balance for the box.

Rate of change of pollution in the box =
Rate of pollution entering the box Rate of pollution leaving the
box

Or

LWH

dc
q s LW WHuCin WHuC
dt

 Where,
C = pollutant concentration in the airshed, mg/m3
Cin = concentartion in the incoming air, mg/m3
qs = emmision rate per unit area, mg/m2-s
H = mixing height, m
L = length of airshed, m
W = width of airshed, m
U = average wind speed against one edge of the box, m/s

The steady state solution to equation 3 can be obtained by

setting dC/dt = 0, so that

qs L
C
Cin
uH

 If the air entering the box is clean then the steady-state

concentration is proportional to the emission rate and

inversely proportional to the ventilation coefficient
If the air entering the box is not clean then just add the effect

of the incoming concentration

Let C(0) be the concentartion in the airshed above the city

(the box) at time t=0, the solution becomes

qs L

Ct
Cin 1 e ut / L C0e ut / L
uH

 Assume that the incoming wind blows no pollution into the

box and if the initial concentration in the box is zero, then

equation 5 becomes

qsL
Ct
1 e ut / L
uH

When t =L/u, the exponential function becomes e-1 and the

concentration reaches about 63% of its final value

The value of time is called the time constant or the ventilation

time or the residence time or the e- folding time