PURPOSES : The purpose of this fundamental study is to estimate the concentration of resuspended road dust in urban areas. This involves examining and measuring the factors that affect the dust concentration and measuring these factors and the concentration directly and indirectly by analyzing the factor-effect relationship of the dust in actual operation.
METHODS : From the literature review, the factors that influence resuspended road dust, including traffic, environment, and weather data of roads and their relationship analysis were obtained to determine the effects of each element on resuspended road dust. The data characteristics and the quantitative changes in the factors when a high concentration of resuspended road dust is generated are analyzed for each condition. The concentrations of the resuspended dust are presented from the perspective of each factor.
RESULTS : When the vehicle speed increased from 60 to 80 km/h, the measured resuspended dust concentration increased by 8㎍/m3 on the average. When the traffic was grouped, the resuspended concentration at 1200-1400 veh/h was 15.84㎍/m3 higher than that of 500-800 veh/h. A high concentration of 60㎍/m3 or more was generated in the SCL high and middle sections, and a high concentration of 10㎍/m3 or more was generated in the SCL low section. Eight cases were observed in the SCL high and middle section at an intense atmospheric wind speed of 3 m/s or more than the SCL level of zero cases. A high concentration of 89.8㎍/m3 resuspended dust was observed after 31 h of rainfall, and the dust concentration gradually decreased by over 50 h. Hence, the passing time after the rainfall, SCL and wind speed, traffic and vehicle speed, and air background (observation) concentration, all have a direct effect on the resuspended dust concentration. Atmospheric temperature and relative humidity have a significant effect on atmospheric dust concentration.
CONCLUSIONS : The quantitative indicators of the factors using an estimation model of resuspended road dust in urban areas can be obtained if the conditions for high concentrations of resuspended dust are established using the quantitative relationship of the resuspended road dust factors presented in this study.