Particle Class Balance for Apportioning Aerosol Mass

Computer-controlled scanning electron microscopy (CCSEM) has been known as a powerful tool to characterize individual particles including various size parameters and major elemental composition in a short analysis time. To exploit CCSEM as a source apportionment receptor modeling technique, it is important to define the membership of each particle in a well defined particle class. Various clustering methods were examined to obtain possible members of homogeneous particle classes. An expert system was then used to build a universal classification rule based on examples of the homogeneous particle classes. The rule was extensively tested and completely confirmed. Ambient samples were classified by the universal classification rule. The mass fraction and its uncertainty for each homogeneous class in both source samples were calculated in order to be used as a source profile. Similarly, mass fractions and uncertainties were calculated for ambient samples. Based on this information, the concept of particle class balance (PCB) was developed as one of the receptor models. These methods were explored and tested, using data from a study in El Paso, Texas.

Name thesis:degree_name

Ph.D.

Level thesis:degree_level

Dissertation

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Environmental Engineering

Grantor

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Year dc:date

2014

Author dc:creator

• Kim, Dong-Sool

Contributors dc:contributor

• Hopke, Philip K.

• Environmental Sciences

Identifier

(UMI)AAI8803087

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/69969