Atmospheric Dispersion

Factors affecting dispersion.

Emission point characteristics
plume expansion and mixing
Most industrial effluents are discharged vertically in the
open air through a stack or duct. As the contaminated
gas stream leaves the discharge point plume tends to
expand and mix with the ambient air. Horizontal air
movement will bend the discharge plume, while effluent
plume is rising and bending, the gaseous effluent are
being diluted by ambient air surrounding the plume , as
the contaminant gases are being diluted they are
eventually dispersed. At some point between 300 to
3000 m the effluent plume will level off.

The plume rise is affected by both

upward inertia of the discharge gas
and by its buoyancy. The vertical
inertia is related to exit gas velocity
and mass. The plume buoyancy is
related to exit gas mass relative to
surrounding mass, increasing the exit
gas temperature and velocity
generally increases the plume rise.

 effective stack height

Higher the plume rise initially the greater
distance is there for diluting the contaminated
gases.

 Meteorological conditions
wind speed and direction
The wind direction will determine the direction
in which pollutants will move across local
terrain . Wind speed affects the plume rise
and rate of mixing or dilution of
contaminated gas as they leave the stack,
If the wind speed is higher , it will decrease
the plume rise by bending the plume , the
decrease in plume rise tends to increase the
pollutants ground level concentration. On
the other hand an increase in wind speed
will increase the rate of dilution.