• Title/Summary/Keyword: Environmental tracer

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Ventilation effectiveness measurements utilizing a tracer gas in an under floor air-conditioning space (추적가스를 이용한 바닥취출 공조공간내의 환기효율 측정실험)

  • 한화택;서세영;김명호;김영일
    • Korean Journal of Air-Conditioning and Refrigeration Engineering
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    • v.10 no.5
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    • pp.610-618
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    • 1998
  • In this study, a tracer gas technique was used to measure ventilation effectiveness in a thermal environmental chamber simulating an under-floor air conditioning system. A tracer gas of $SF_6$ was injected in a supply duct using step-up and step-down methods. Local mean ages and room mean ages were calculated from the measured concentrations under isothermal and cooling conditions with and without diffusers. Ventilation effectiveness is found to be higher in cooling ventilation operations than in isothermal operations. Results also show that ventilation effectiveness is not significantly affected by a diffuser.

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Characterization of the Transport of Zero-Valent Iron Nanoparticles in an Aquifer for Application of Reactive Zone Technology (반응존 공법 적용을 위한 나노영가철의 대수층 내 이동 특성에 관한 연구)

  • Kim, Cheolyong;Ahn, Jun-Young;Ngoc, Tuan Huynh;Kim, Hong-Seok;Jun, Seong-Chun;Hwang, Inseong
    • Journal of Soil and Groundwater Environment
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    • v.18 no.3
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    • pp.109-118
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    • 2013
  • Characteristics of the transport of zero-valent iron nanoparticles (nZVI) in an aquifer were investigated to evaluate an application of nZVI-based reactive zone technology. Main flow direction of groundwater was north. Preferential flow paths of the groundwater identified by natural gradient tracer test were shown northeast and northwest. The highest groundwater velocity was $4.86{\times}10^{-5}$ m/s toward northwest. When the breakthrough curves obtained from the gravity injection of nZVI were compared with the tracer curves, the transport of nZVI was retarded and retardation factors were 1.17 and 1.34 at monitoring wells located on the northeast and northwest, respectively. The ratios of the amount of nZVI delivered to the amount of tracer delivered at the two wells mentioned above were 24 and 28 times greater than that of the well on the main flow direction, respectively. Attachment efficiency based on a filtration theory was $4.08{\times}10^{-2}$ along the northwest direction that was the main migration route of nZVI. Our results, compared to attachment efficiencies obtained in other studies, demonstrate that the mobility of nZVI was higher than that of results reported in previous studies, regardless of large iron particle sizes of the current study. Based on distribution of nZVI estimated by the attachment efficiency, it was found that nZVI present within 1.05 m from injection well could remove 99% of TCE within 6 months.

Application of Digital Signal Analysis Technique to Enhance the Quality of Tracer Gas Measurements in IAQ Model Tests

  • Lee, Hee-Kwan;Awbi, Hazim B.
    • Journal of Korean Society for Atmospheric Environment
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    • v.23 no.E2
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    • pp.66-73
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    • 2007
  • The introduction of tracer gas techniques to ventilation studies in indoor environments provides valuable information that used to be unattainable from conventional testing environments. Data acquisition systems (DASs) containing analogue-to-digital (A/D) converters are usually used to function the key role that records signals to storage in digital format. In the testing process, there exist a number of components in the measuring equipment which may produce system-based inference to the monitored results. These unwanted fluctuations may cause significant error in data analysis, especially when non-linear algorithms are involved. In this study, a pre-processor is developed and applied to separate the unwanted fluctuations (noise or interference) in raw measurements and to reduce the uncertainty in the measurement. Moving average, notch filter, FIR (Finite Impulse Response) filters, and IIR (Infinite Impulse Response) filters are designed and applied to collect the desired information from the raw measurements. Tracer gas concentrations are monitored during leakage and ventilation tests in the model test room. The signal analysis functions are introduced to carry out the digital signal processing (DSP) work. Overall the FIR filters process the $CO_2$ measurement properly for ventilation rate and mean age of air calculations. It is found that, the Kaiser filter was the most applicable digital filter for pre-processing the tracer gas measurements. Although the IIR filters help to reduce the random noise in the data, they cause considerable changes to the filtered data, which is not desirable.

Evaluation of Capture Efficiencies of Push-Pull Hood Systems by Trace Gas Method under the Presence of Some Cross-draft (방해기류 존재시 추적자 가스법을 이용한 푸쉬풀 후드 효율 평가)

  • Kim, Tae-Hyeung;Ha, Hyun-Chul;Kang, Ho-Gyung
    • Journal of Korean Society of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene
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    • v.16 no.3
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    • pp.290-301
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    • 2006
  • A push pull hood system is frequently applied to control contaminants evaporated from an open surface tank. Efficiency of push pull hood system is affected by various parameters, such as, cross draft, vessel shapes, tank surface area, liquid temperature. A previous work assisted by flow visualization technique qualitatively showed that a strong cross draft blown from the pull hood to push slot could destroy a stable wall-jet on the surface of tank, resulting in the abrupt escape of smoke from the surface. In this study, the tracer gas method was applied to determine the effect of cross-draft on the capture efficiency qualitatively. A new concept of capture efficiency was introduced, that is, linear efficiency. This can be determined by measuring the mass of tracer gas in the duct of pull hood while the linear tracer source is in between push slot and pull hood. By traversing the linear tracer source from the push slot to the pull hood, it can be found where the contaminant is escaped from the tank. Total capture efficiency can be determined by averaging the linear efficiencies. Under the condition of cross-draft velocities of 0, 0.4, 0.75, 1.05 and 1.47m/s, total capture efficiencies were measured as 97.6, 95.4, 94.6, 92.7 and 70.5% respectively. The abrupt reduction of efficiency with cross-draft velocity of 1.47m/s was due to the destruction of tank surface wall-jet by the counter-current cross-draft. The same phenomenon was observed in the previous flow visualization study. As an alternative to overcome this abrupt efficiency drop, the 20% increase of hood flow rates was tested, resulting in 20% efficiency increase.

A Field Tracer Experiment by using RI and Numerical Modelling in River (RI를 이용한 하천 현장실험 및 수치 모델링)

  • Kim, Ki Chul;Chun, Il Young;Jung, Sung Hee;Lee, Jung Lyul;Suh, Kyung Suk
    • Journal of Radiation Industry
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    • v.2 no.3
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    • pp.135-140
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    • 2008
  • A field tracer experiment using radioisotope was carried out to investigate the characteristics of a pollutant transport and a determination of the dispersion coefficients in a river system. The dispersion coefficients in the longitudinal and transverse directions were determined by using the measured concentration of a radioisotope. The two-dimensional numerical models were applied to calculate the flow and concentration fields at the experimental site. Several numerical simulations were performed to investigate the effects of the numerical results according to variations of the dispersion coefficients. The calculated concentrations agreed well with the measured ones.

Two-dimensional Tracer Tests in Natural Rivers Using Radioisotope (방사성 동위원소를 이용한 자연하천의 2차원 추적자 실험)

  • Seo, Il Won;Baek, Kyong Oh;Jeon, Tae Myong
    • KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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    • v.26 no.2B
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    • pp.161-170
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    • 2006
  • A tracer test technique using a radioisotope was proposed to investigate pollutant mixing characteristics in rivers. The main advantages of radioisotope as a tracer in field tests are that it can be detected easily, and that its detection range is quite large. Also, using the radioisotope, the amount sorbed by the bed material and the biota may be a minimum. Field tracer tests were conducted at seven different sites in natural rivers with various meandering pattern. Based on the acquired data, the behavior of the tracer cloud in the intermediate-field was examined two-dimensionally, and dispersion coefficients were calculated using several evaluation methods. Results revealed that the tracer cloud was transported skewed to the outer bank and dispersion coefficients in bends were larger than those in straight reaches.

Gas Exchange Rates Measured Using a Dual-Tracer ($SF_6$ and $^3He$) Method in the Coastal Waters of Korea

  • Lee, Hyun-Woo;Lee, Ki-Tack;Kaown, Duk-In
    • Ocean Science Journal
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    • v.43 no.1
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    • pp.17-24
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    • 2008
  • Over a period of 5 days between August 12 and 17, 2005, we performed a gas exchange experiment using the dual tracer method in a tidal coastal ocean located off the southern coast of Korea. The gas exchange rate was determined from temporal changes in the ratio of $^3He$ to $SF_6$ measured daily in the surface mixed layer. The measured gas exchange rate($k_{CO_2}$), normalized to a Schmidt number of 600 for $CO_2$ in fresh water at $20^{\circ}C$, was approximately $5.0\;cm\;h^{-1}$ at a mean wind speed of $3.9\;ms^{-1}$ during the study period. This value is significantly less than those obtained from floating chamber-based experiments performed previously in estuarine environments, but is similar in magnitude to values obtained using the dual tracer method in river and tidal coastal waters and values predicted on the basis of the relationship between the gas exchange rate and wind speed (Wanninkhof 1992), which is generally applicable to the open ocean. Our result is also consistent with the relationship of Raymond and Cole (2001), which was derived from experiments carried out in estuarine environments using $^{222}Rn$ and chlorofluorocarbons along with measurements undertaken in the Hudson River, Canada, using $SF_6$ and $^3He$. Our results indicate that tidal action in a microtidal region did not discernibly enhance the measured $k_{CO_2}$ value.

Tracer Experiment for the Investigation of Urban Scale Dispersion of Air Pollutants - An Improved Method for the Release and Determination of Perfluorocarbon Tracers in the Urban Atmosphere (추적자 확산 실험에 의한 서울 도심 확산 현상 연구 - 도시규모 대기확산 실험을 위한 PFCs 추적자 방출 및 분석 시스템의 개발 및 적용 연구)

  • Yoo, Eun-Jin;Lee, Chong-Bum;Ro, Chul-Un;Kim, Hye-Kyeong;Lee, Gang-Woong
    • Journal of Korean Society for Atmospheric Environment
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    • v.23 no.5
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    • pp.547-556
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    • 2007
  • The release, sampling and analytical methods have been developed and tested for perfluorocarbons (PFCs) atmospheric tracers in order to gain insight into the atmospheric transport and dispersion over the urban conditions of Seoul, Korea. Although PFCs tracer experiments provide unique opportunities to test local and urban scale of transport and dispersion, no previous experiment with PFCs has been conducted in Korea. PMCH and PDCH were chosen as targeted tracers in our study due to their extreme low ambient concentrations and great sensitivities among various PFCs. For PFCs release system, a set of micro-metering pump, electronic balance, vaporizing furnace and high speed blower was constructed for precise and accurate release of tracers. The precision of released rate by this system was estimated to be 1%. Samplings of PFCs were carried out by fabricated portable air samplers with micro pumps and rotameters into glass tubes packed with 150 mg of Carboxen-569. The uncertainty of these sampling system was maintained below 14%. PMCH and PDCH were quantified in GC/ECD with preconditioned injection system to eliminate the interference compounds using traps and subsequent catalytic conversion system prior to column separation. Three intensive field test were undertaken during the springtime of 2002 to 2004 in eastern part of Seoul. Daily background samples were collected to characterize the background levels of PMCH and PDCH prior to their release. The observed background concentrations of PMCH ranged from 3.5 to 10.1 fL/L and varied randomly in location and time in this study. Its mean and standard variation of background concentration ($6.8{\pm}1.9\;fL/L$) are higher than those ($3.2{\sim}5.8\;fL/L$) of other historic tracer studies. Identified uncertainty for background PMCH was $1.7{\sim}2.0\;fL/L$ using this analytical system. Combined relative uncertainty in determining the tracer's concentrations was estimated as 17%. However, its background concentrations and uncertainty in concentration determination were found to be low and stable enough for tracer study.

The Interference of Organic Matter in the Characterization of Aquifers Contaminated with LNAPLs by Partitioning Tracer Method (LNAPLs 오염 지반에 분배성 추적자 시험법 적용 시 유기물질의 영향에 관한 연구)

  • Khan, Sherin Momand;Rhee, Sung-Su;Park, Jun-Boum
    • Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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    • v.24 no.9
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    • pp.13-21
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    • 2008
  • Partitioning tracer method is a useful tool to characterize large domains of the aquifers contaminated with light nonaqueous phase liquids (LNAPLs). Sorption of the partitioning tracers to the organic matter content of soil can potentially influence the efficacy of partitioning tracer method. LNAPL-water partitioning coefficients of tracers ($K_{nw}$), measured by static method, showed linear relationship. Sorption isotherm tests were conducted to evaluate the sorption capacity of the soils packed in the columns and the results were appropriately represented by Freundlich sorption isotherm. The sorption of tracers proportionally increased with the increase of the organic matter content of the soil. Laboratory experiments were conducted in four columns each packed with soils of different organic matter contents to determine the potential interference effects of sorption to soil organic matter content and correction factors for the errors in estimation of LNAPLs by partitioning tracer method. Though there were no contaminants added, breakthrough curves from columns packed with mixture of Jumunjin standard sand and organic matter showed separation of tracers. Columns were then contaminated to residual saturation with kerosene and breakthrough curves were obtained. The results show that sorption of tracers to soil organic matter leads to an increase in the retardation factor (R) and hence, to an overestimation of the saturation of LNAPLs. A relation between the percentage of organic matter content and the corresponding percentage error in the estimation of NAPLs has been developed.

Contribution of Biomass Burning and Secondary Organic Carbon to Water Soluble Organic Carbon at a Suburban Site (교외지역 수용성유기탄소 내 식생연소 및 2차 유기탄소에 의한 기여량 연구)

  • Oh, Sea-Ho;Park, Eun-Ha;Yi, Seung-Muk;Shon, Zang-Ho;Park, Kihong;Bae, Min-Suk
    • Journal of Korean Society for Atmospheric Environment
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    • v.34 no.2
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    • pp.259-268
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    • 2018
  • The $PM_{2.5}$ samples were collected for every 6th day during one year at a suburban site in the Namwonsi, Jeollanamdo, Republic of Korea. Samples were analyzed for elemental carbon (EC), organic carbon (OC), and water-soluble organic carbon (WSOC), and levoglucosan. Although the water-soluble fraction of fine particulate OC consistently showed over a year, levoglucosan fraction of WSOC varied considerably from month to month. In this study, non-biomass-burning WSOC ($WSOC_{NBB}$) and biomass-burning $WSOC_{BB}$ were calculated with measurements of organic source tracer, levoglucosan, to better understand the temporal distribution and sources of WSOC. Two methods of predicting the secondary organic carbon from the biomass-burning $WSOC_{BB}$ Method and the EC-tracer Method were compared. Poor correlations between SOC estimated between two methods suggested that the use of the EC tracer method to estimate SOC may be significantly flawed. Direct measurements of levoglucosan and WSOC can provide a reasonable estimate of secondary organic carbon concentrations.