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Islam MS, Fang T, Oldfield C, Larpruenrudee P, Beni HM, Rahman MM, Husain S, Gu Y. Heat Wave and Bushfire Meteorology in New South Wales, Australia: Air Quality and Health Impacts. INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF ENVIRONMENTAL RESEARCH AND PUBLIC HEALTH 2022; 19:10388. [PMID: 36012020 PMCID: PMC9407765 DOI: 10.3390/ijerph191610388] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/24/2022] [Revised: 08/09/2022] [Accepted: 08/18/2022] [Indexed: 06/15/2023]
Abstract
The depletion of air quality is a major problem that is faced around the globe. In Australia, the pollutants emitted by bushfires play an important role in making the air polluted. These pollutants in the air result in many adverse impacts on the environment. This paper analysed the air pollution from the bushfires from November 2019 to July 2020 and identified how it affects the human respiratory system. The bush fires burnt over 13 million hectares, destroying over 2400 buildings. While these immediate effects were devastating, the long-term effects were just as devastating, with air pollution causing thousands of people to be admitted to hospitals and emergency departments because of respiratory complications. The pollutant that caused most of the health effects throughout Australia was Particulate Matter (PM) PM2.5 and PM10. Data collection and analysis were covered in this paper to illustrate where and when PM2.5 and PM10, and other pollutants were at their most concerning levels. Susceptible areas were identified by analysing environmental factors such as temperature and wind speed. The study identified how these pollutants in the air vary from region to region in the same time interval. This study also focused on how these pollutant distributions vary according to the temperature, which helps to determine the relationship between the heatwave and air quality. A computational model for PM2.5 aerosol transport to the realistic airways was also developed to understand the bushfire exhaust aerosol transport and deposition in airways. This study would improve the knowledge of the heat wave and bushfire meteorology and corresponding respiratory health impacts.
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Affiliation(s)
- Mohammad S. Islam
- School of Mechanical and Mechatronic Engineering, University of Technology Sydney (UTS), 15 Broadway, Ultimo, NSW 2007, Australia
| | - Tianxin Fang
- School of Mechanical and Mechatronic Engineering, University of Technology Sydney (UTS), 15 Broadway, Ultimo, NSW 2007, Australia
| | - Callum Oldfield
- School of Mechanical and Mechatronic Engineering, University of Technology Sydney (UTS), 15 Broadway, Ultimo, NSW 2007, Australia
| | - Puchanee Larpruenrudee
- School of Mechanical and Mechatronic Engineering, University of Technology Sydney (UTS), 15 Broadway, Ultimo, NSW 2007, Australia
| | - Hamidreza Mortazavy Beni
- Department of Biomedical Engineering, Arsanjan Branch, Islamic Azad University, Arsanjan 6134937333, Iran
| | - Md. M. Rahman
- School of Computing, Engineering, and Mathematics, Western Sydney University, Penrith, NSW 2751, Australia
| | - Shahid Husain
- Department of Mechanical Engineering, Zakir Husain College of Engineering & Technology, Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh 202001, India
| | - Yuantong Gu
- School of Mechanical, Medical and Process Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, QLD 4000, Australia
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How Nanoparticle Aerosols Transport through Multi-Stenosis Sections of Upper Airways: A CFD-DPM Modelling. ATMOSPHERE 2022. [DOI: 10.3390/atmos13081192] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/17/2022]
Abstract
Airway stenosis is a global respiratory health problem that is caused by airway injury, endotracheal intubation, malignant tumor, lung aging, or autoimmune diseases. A precise understanding of the airflow dynamics and pharmaceutical aerosol transport through the multi-stenosis airways is vital for targeted drug delivery, and is missing from the literature. The object of this study primarily relates to behaviors and nanoparticle transport through the multi-stenosis sections of the trachea and upper airways. The combination of a CT-based mouth–throat model and Weibel’s model was adopted in the ANSYS FLUENT solver for the numerical simulation of the Euler–Lagrange (E-L) method. Comprehensive grid refinement and validation were performed. The results from this study indicated that, for all flow rates, a higher velocity was usually found in the stenosis section. The maximum velocity was found in the stenosis section having a 75% reduction, followed by the stenosis section having a 50% reduction. Increasing flow rate resulted in higher wall shear stress, especially in stenosis sections. The highest pressure was found in the mouth–throat section for all flow rates. The lowest pressure was usually found in stenosis sections, especially in the third generation. Particle escape rate was dependent on flow rate and inversely dependent on particle size. The overall deposition efficiency was observed to be significantly higher in the mouth–throat and stenosis sections compared to other areas. However, this was proven to be only the case for a particle size of 1 nm. Moreover, smaller nanoparticles were usually trapped in the mouth–throat section, whereas larger nanoparticle sizes escaped through the lower airways from the left side of the lung; this accounted for approximately 50% of the total injected particles, and 36% escaped from the right side. The findings of this study can improve the comprehensive understanding of airflow patterns and nanoparticle deposition. This would be beneficial in work with polydisperse particle deposition for treatment of comprehensive stenosis with specific drugs under various disease conditions.
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