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Title: Fugitive particulate air emissions from off-road vehicle maneuvers at military training lands

Author
item Wagner, Larry
item MEEKS, JEREMY - Kansas State University
item Tatarko, John
item MAGHIRANG, RONALDO - Kansas State University

Submitted to: ASABE Annual International Meeting
Publication Type: Abstract Only
Publication Acceptance Date: 3/11/2013
Publication Date: N/A
Citation: N/A

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: Military training lands used for off-road vehicle maneuvers may be subject to severe soil loss and air quality degradation as a result of severe wind erosion. The objective of this study was to measure suspended particulate matter resulting from various different vehicle training scenarios. Soil samples were taken at Ft. Riley, KS, Ft. Benning, GA, and Ft. Yakima, WA. Two vehicles were used at each of the sites to simulate training activities with a smaller, lower weight vehicle as well as a heavy, fully armored vehicle. Samples were taken after low, medium and high numbers of passes by each vehicle. Emissions tests were conducted on site at the time of training as well as soil tray samples being taken and tested in a laboratory scale wind tunnel. The in-situ testing was conducted with a Portable In-Situ Wind Erosion Laboratory (PI-SWERL) developed by researchers at the Desert Research Institute. This instrument uses a flat annular blade spinning at various speeds to simulate shear stress across the soil surface with an optical sensor to measure particulate emissions. The wind tunnel trays were tested for both loose erodible material as well as suspension component when subjected to abrasion by saltation sized (0.29 – 0.42 mm) silica sand. A vertically integrated slot sampler was operated isokinetically during wind tunnel testing. This system consists of the sampler located within the tunnel connected to a variable speed blower motor to maintain isokinetic conditions. Mass based emissions samples were collected on glass-fiber filters as well as a subsample taken by an optical sensor (GRIMM 1.108) to obtain the particle size distribution of the suspension material. The preliminary results show a range of loose erodible material between 11.8 mg/m2 for an undisturbed surface and 1164.8 mg/m2 for a highly disturbed, heavily trafficked surface. It has also been shown that there is a significant (p < 0.05) difference in emissions among soil textures. Additionally, there was a significant difference between undisturbed and disturbed surfaces for all testing conditions, however, due to high variability in emissions there has proven to be little to no significant difference among various treatments.