Vellore Institute of Technology (VIT) is a private university located in&nbsp;Tamil Nadu, India. Founded in 1984, as Vellore Engineering College, the institution offers 20 undergraduate, 34 postgraduate, four integrated and four research programs. It has campuses in Vellore, Amravati, Bhopal and Chennai.

VIT is one of the top ranked private universities in India according to NIRF, THE and QS Rankings.&nbsp;Govt. of India has recognized&nbsp;VIT, Vellore as an&nbsp;Institution of Eminence. This has allowed VIT to take independent quality initiatives and move up in world ranking.

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VIT University

Department of Environmental and Water Resources Engineering

School of Civil Engineering

Vellore Campus

World University root node

International Journal of Environmental Engineering

ANN-based PM prediction model for assessing the temporal variability of PM10, PM2.5 and PM1 concentrations at an urban roadway

The 24-h average ambient particulate matter (PM 10 and PM 2.5) concentrations are sampled concurrently during November 2008-April 2009 at a busy roadside in Chennai City, India. The elemental (Ag, Al, As, B, Ba, Be, Bi, Ca, Cd, Co, Cr, Cu, Fe, Ga, K, Li, Mg, Mn, Mo, Na, Ni, Pb, Rb, Se, Sr, Te, Tl, V and Zn) and ionic (Na +, NH 4 +, K +, Ca 2+, Mg 2+, F -, Cl -, NO 2 -, NO 3 - and SO 4 2-) composition of PM 10 and PM 2.5 are determined using an inductively coupled plasma-optical emission spectrometer (ICP-OES) and an ion chromatograph (IC), respectively. The emission inventory at the study area is also carried out to identify the likely PM emission sources. The U.S. EPA's-CMB (chemical mass balance) version 8.2 is applied to identify the source contribution of ambient PM 10 and PM 2.5 concentrations at the study area. Results indicated that diesel exhausts (43-52% in PM 10 and 44-65% in PM 2.5) and gasoline exhausts (6-16% in PM 10 and 3-8% in PM 2.5) are found to be the major source contributors at the study site followed by the paved road dusts (PM 10=PM 2.5=0.-2.3%), brake lining dusts (0.1% in PM 10 and 0.2% in PM 2.5), brake pad wear dusts (0.1% in PM 10 and 0.01% in PM 2.5), marine aerosols (PM 10=PM 2.5=0.1%) and cooking (~0.8% in PM 10 and ~1.5% in PM 2.5). © 2012 Elsevier B.V.

Science of the Total Environment

Source characterization of PM 10 and PM 2.5 mass using a chemical mass balance model at urban roadside

The 24-h average coarse (PM10) and fine (PM2.5) fraction of airborne particulate matter (PM) samples were collected for winter, summer and monsoon seasons during November 2008-April 2009 at an busy roadside in Chennai city, India. Results showed that the 24-h average ambient PM10 and PM2.5 concentrations were significantly higher in winter and monsoon seasons than in summer season. The 24-h average PM10 concentration of weekdays was significantly higher (12-30%) than weekends of winter and monsoon seasons. On weekends, the PM2.5 concentration was found to slightly higher (4-15%) in monsoon and summer seasons. The chemical composition of PM10 and PM2.5 masses showed a high concentration in winter followed by monsoon and summer seasons.The U.S.EPA-PMF (positive matrix factorization) version 3 was applied to identify the source contribution of ambient PM10 and PM2.5 concentrations at the study area. Results indicated that marine aerosol (40.4% in PM10 and 21.5% in PM2.5) and secondary PM (22.9% in PM10 and 42.1% in PM2.5) were found to be the major source contributors at the study site followed by the motor vehicles (16% in PM10 and 6% in PM2.5), biomass burning (0.7% in PM10 and 14% in PM2.5), tire and brake wear (4.1% in PM10 and 5.4% in PM2.5), soil (3.4% in PM10 and 4.3% in PM2.5) and other sources (12.7% in PM10 and 6.8% in PM2.5). © 2012 Elsevier Ltd.

Chemosphere

Application of positive matrix factorization in characterization of PM10 and PM2.5 emission sources at urban roadside

This paper presents the characteristics of particulate matter (PM) mass concentrations (PM10, PM2.5 and PM1) emitted from heterogeneous traffic in Chennai city during monsoon, winter and summer seasons of the year 2007-2009. The heterogeneous traffic characteristics at the study region indicated dominance of 2-wheelers (58%) followed by the 4-wheelers (29%), 3-wheelers (7%), light commercial vehicle (LCV = 2%) and heavy commercial vehicle (HCV = 4%). The vintage analysis of vehicles showed that 11, 24, 35 and 30% of the total vehicles were 15, 10, 5 and &lt;5 years old vehicles, respectively (75% of LCV and 70% of HCV were older than 10 years and 82% of 2W, 85% of 3W, 79% of 4W were less than 10 years old). The travel demand on weekdays at the study site revealed that 60% of the traffic in the morning peak hours was due to school and office trips and 40% was due to the business trips. During the weekends the peak rush hours traffic was dominated by travel demand (90%) due to tourists and pleasure trips. At study region, the PM10 comprised a large fraction of PM2.5 (56% of PM2.5 and 44% of PM1), while PM2.5 comprised a large proportion of PM1 (81%). The estimated PM2.5/PM10 ratios for monsoon, winter and summer seasons were ranged between 0.44-0.62, 0.66-0.76 and 0.62-0.73, respectively. The high PM2.5/PM10 ratios (R2 = 0.92-0.98) during peak hour indicated significant contribution from the vehicular emissions. Further, it was found that the PM10, PM2.5 and PM1 concentrations at the study site followed similar trend of 2W, 3W, 4W and HCV during morning peak hour traffic. The analysis of 24-hr average PM10, PM2.5 and PM1 concentrations showed maximum during monsoon (188.75 ± 71.75, 83.91 ± 33.18, 65.81 ± 28.47 μg/m3) and winter (134.58 ± 64.55, 72.95 ± 39.27, 59.00 ± 31.15 μg/m3) and minimum during summer (75.96 ± 43.15, 42.16 ± 19.76, 31.40 ± 16.05 μg/m3) seasons. The 24-hr average PM10 and PM2.5 indicated maximum violations of Indian national ambient air quality standards (NAAQS for PM10 = 100 μg/m3 and PM2.5 = 60 μg/m3) during winter and monsoon seasons and minimum during summer season. Further, PM10 and PM2.5 concentrations were well above the prescribed 24-hr average world health organization (WHO) standards (PM10 = 50 μg/m3; PM2.5 = 25 μg/m3).The PM chemical characterization indicated the dominance of soil based crustal elements (74%) - Al, Ca, Fe and Mg, salt based components (16%)-Na and K, and the other trace elements (10%) such as B, Ba, Cd, Co, Cr, Cu, Ga, Mn, Mo, Ni, Pb, Rb, Se, Sr, Te, V and Zn. The percentage composition of different group of elements indicates traffic as the main source of PM emission at the study site. The ion analysis showed presence of more anions (36-82%) than the cations (18-64%). SO42- and Mg2+ were major constituents. © 2011 Elsevier Ltd.

Atmospheric Environment

Characteristics of particulate matter and heterogeneous traffic in the urban area of India

In this paper, the chemical characterization of PM10 and PM2.5 mass concentrations emitted by heterogeneous traffic in Chennai city during monsoon, winter and summer seasons were analysed. The 24-h averages of PM10 and PM2.5 mass concentrations, showed higher concentrations during the winter season (PM10=98μg/m3; PM2.5=74μg/m3) followed by the monsoon (PM10=87μg/m3; PM2.5=56μg/m3) and summer (PM10=77μg/m3; PM2.5=67μg/m3) seasons. The assessment of 24-h average PM10 and PM2.5 concentrations was indicated as violation of the world health organization (WHO standard for PM10=50μg/m3 and PM2.5=25μg/m3) and Indian national ambient air quality standards (NAAQS for PM10=100μg/m3 and PM2.5=60μg/m3).The chemicals characterization of PM10 and PM2.5 samples (22 samples) for each season were made for water soluble ions using Ion Chromatography (IC) and trace metals by Inductively Coupled Plasma Optical Emission Spectroscopy (ICP-OES) instrument. Results showed the dominance of crustal elements (Ca, Mg, Al, Fe and K), followed by marine aerosols (Na and K) and trace elements (Zn, Ba, Be, Ca, Cd, Co, Cr, Cu, Mn, Ni, Pb, Se, Sr and Te) emitted from road traffic in both PM10 and PM2.5 mass. The ionic species concentration in PM10 and PM2.5 mass consists of 47-65% of anions and 35-53% of cations with dominance of SO42- ions. Comparison of the metallic and ionic species in PM10 and PM2.5 mass indicated the contributions from sea and crustal soil emissions to the coarse particles and traffic emissions to fine particles. © 2011 Elsevier B.V.

Chemical characterization of PM10 and PM2.5 mass concentrations emitted by heterogeneous traffic

This paper presents analysis and interpretation of diurnal, weekly and seasonal cycles of 1-h average particulate matter (PM10, PM2.5 and PM1) concentrations measured near an urban roadway in Chennai city, India, between November 2007 and May 2008. The PM data analysis showed clear diurnal, weekly and seasonal cycles at the study site. In diurnal cycle, highest PM concentrations were observed during weekday's peak hour traffic and lowest PM concentrations were found during trickle traffic (afternoon and nighttime). The seasonal PM data analysis showed highest concentrations during post monsoon season (PM10 = 189, PM2.5 = 84, PM1 = 66 μg/m3) compared to winter (PM10 = 135, PM2.5 = 73, PM1 = 59 μg/m3) and summer (PM10 = 102, PM2.5 = 50, PM1 = 34 μg/m3) seasons. The particle size distribution during post-monsoon, winter and summer seasons showed two distinct modes viz. accumulation (mean diameter, d = 2.2 μm; distribution = 40%) and coarse (d = 7.1 μm, distribution = 60%). The frequency distribution of PM10 concentrations during post-monsoon and winter seasons indicated that the PM10 values at the study site fall under moderate to poor categories. During post-monsoon and winter seasons, it was found that more than 50% of the time the 24-h average PM10 concentrations were violating the Indian national ambient air quality standards (NAAQS) (100 μg/m3) and world health organization (WHO) standard (50 μg/m3). The 24-h average PM2.5 concentrations were also exceeding the NAAQS (60 μg/m3) and WHO standards (25 μg/m3) by 75% of time, irrespective of seasons. © Author(s) 2010.

Fulltext

Atmospheric Pollution Research

Analysis and interpretation of particulate matter - PM10, PM2.5 and PM1 emissions from the heterogeneous traffic near an urban roadway

In this paper the influence of heterogeneous traffic on the temporal variation of ambient PM10, PM 2.5 and PM 1 concentrations at a busy arterial route (Sardar Patel Road) in the Chennai city has been analyzed. The hourly PM concentration, traffic counts and average speed of the vehicles have been monitored at the study site for one week (19 th-25 th January 2009). Results indicated that the concentrations of coarse (PM 10) and fine PM (PM 2.5 and PM 1) concentrations at SP road are having similar trend during peak and non-peak hours, irrespective of the days. The PM concentrations showed daily two peaks corresponding to morning (8 to 10 am) and evening (7 to 9 pm) peak hour traffic flow. The PM10 concentration is dominated by fine particles (53% of PM2.5 and 45% of PM 1). The high PM 2.5/PM 10 ratio indicates that the majority of PM10 particles originate from re-suspension of road dust. The analysis of traffic flow at the study site showed that 2W, 3W and 4W are having similar diurnal trend as PM concentrations. This confirms that the 2W, 3W and 4W are the main emission source contributing to ambient PM concentration at SP road. The speed measurement at SP road showed that the average speed of 2W, 3W, 4W, LCV and HCV are 38, 40, 38, 40 and 38 km/hr and 43, 41, 42, 40 and 41 km/hr respectively for the weekdays and weekdays.

World Academy of Science, Engineering and Technology

Influence of heterogeneous traffic on the roadside fine (PM 2.5 and PM 1) and coarse (PM 10) particulate matter concentrations in Chennai city, India

In this paper the influence of heterogeneous traffic on the temporal variation of ambient PM10, PM2.5 and PM1 concentrations at a busy arterial route (Sardar Patel Road) in the Chennai city has been analyzed. The hourly PM concentration, traffic counts and average speed of the vehicles have been monitored at the study site for one week (19th-25th January 2009). Results indicated that the concentrations of coarse (PM10) and fine PM (PM2.5 and PM1) concentrations at SP road are having similar trend during peak and non-peak hours, irrespective of the days. The PM concentrations showed daily two peaks corresponding to morning (8 to 10 am) and evening (7 to 9 pm) peak hour traffic flow. The PM10 concentration is dominated by fine particles (53% of PM2.5 and 45% of PM1). The high PM2.5/PM10 ratio indicates that the majority of PM10 particles originate from re-suspension of road dust. The analysis of traffic flow at the study site showed that 2W, 3W and 4W are having similar diurnal trend as PM concentrations. This confirms that the 2W, 3W and 4W are the main emission source contributing to ambient PM concentration at SP road. The speed measurement at SP road showed that the average speed of 2W, 3W, 4W, LCV and HCV are 38, 40, 38, 40 and 38 km/hr and 43, 41, 42, 40 and 41 km/hr respectively for the weekdays and weekdays.