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No description available.

Airborne particles and their adverse effects on air quality have been recognized by humans since ancient times. Current exhaust emission legislations increase the relative contribution of wear particles on the PM levels. Consequently, wear-based particle emissions from rail and road transport have raised concerns as ground transportation is developing quickly. Although scientific research on airborne wear-based particles started in 1909, there is almost no legislation that control the generation of wear-based particles. In addition, there is no accepted and approved standard measurement technique for monitoring and recording particle characteristics. The main objective of this study is to review recent experimental work in this field and to discuss their set-ups, the sampling methods, the results, and their limitations, and to propose measures for reducing these limitations.

Konstgräs används i stor utsträckning och dess miljöpåverkan är omdebatterad. Oro finns över spridning av mikroplaster och dess miljöpåverkan. Flera studier på spridning av större mikroplast finns, medan spridning av luftburna partiklar är mindre väl utforskat. Studier på detta är till sin natur svåra då tester i fält försvåras av förekomsten av mätbrus i form av partiklar från trafik etc. Detta arbete syftar till att i kontrollerad miljö, genom att använda en Brittisk pendelrigg, undersöka bildandet av luftburna partiklar vid yttre påverkan på konstgräs. Skillnaden mellan olika konstgrässystem studeras, i detta fall olika typer av granulat, s.k. infill. Tester körs med de tre vanligaste granulattyperna, SBR, TPE samt EPDM. I dessa tester kan skillnad påvisas mellan EPDM gentemot de andra två typerna, där EPDM ger upphov till fler luftburna partiklar. / Artificial turf is today widely used, and its environmental impact is much-debated. There are some concerns regarding the spread of microplastics and their environmental impact. Some studies regarding the spread of larger particles exist, while the impact in the form of airborne particles is less well explored. Studies on airborne particulates are quite complicated, as measuring these is made complicated by the already existing particles from traffic and such. In this study a British pendulum is utilized to, in a controlled environment, try to ascertain if a difference may exist between different types of turf. In this study the three most commonly used types of rubber granules, infill, are tested. These are SBR, TPE and EPDM. These tests show a difference in release of airborne particle between EPDM and the other two types, where EPDM generate more airborne particles.

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Les composites renforcés avec des nanotubes de carbone présentent un réel potentiel en terme de renforcement mécanique, d’amélioration de conductivités électrique et thermique des matériaux cependant les effets toxicologiques des nanotubes de carbone sur la santé humaine sont toujours à l’étude, et tout laisse à penser que ceux-ci feront prochainement l’objet de normes et autres législation. C’est pourquoi les fabricants de composites renforcés nanotubes de carbone ont tout intérêt à prendre les devants sur de futures législations en contrôlant le relargage de nanotubes isolés lors de différentes sollicitations de ces matériaux telles que la casse ou l’abrasion. Un bon état de dispersion des nanotubes au sein de la matrice est un paramètre qui améliore les performances du composite et que l’on suppose faire baisser le relargage de nanotubes de carbone isolé dans l’environnement. Le but final de cette étude est donc ici de savoir si la qualité de l’état de dispersion des nanotubes influe sur la nature des particules relarguées suite à une dégradation d’un composites. Il faut savoir si l’on a relargué des nanotubes isolés, ou bien des particules de polymère dans lesquelles des nanotubes seraient complètement enrobés, d’où l’intérêt de bien maitriser cette étape de dispersion. Pour contrôler la dispersion des nanotubes de carbone dans un système polymère, différentes méthode peuvent être utilisées, notamment la microscopie électronique (MEB et MET), mais également des méthodes telles que la caractérisation des propriétés mécaniques, la conductivité électrique, thermique ou encore la rhéologie des suspensions. Ces différentes méthodes étant plus ou moins efficaces et simple à mettre en œuvre pour indiquer si les nanotubes sont individuellement dispersés, en fagots, voire en agglomérats. Une fois l’état de dispersion des composites biens caractérisés, il s’agit de le corréler avec une prédisposition plus ou moins prononcée de ce nanocomposite au relargage. La théorie prédit que l’interface entre un nanotube et le polymère est supposé bien plus forte que celle entre un nanotube entouré par d’autres nanotubes au sein d’un agrégat. Des observations microscopiques de fractures ainsi que la caractérisation des particules relarguées lors des tests en abrasion standardisés (mesures granulométriques combinées à des observations par microscopie électronique) menées sur ces matériaux modèles permettent alors de confirmer les prédictions théoriques et de caractériser les particules relarguées en termes de taille, nombre et nature. Les résultats ne permettent pas d’affirmer que des nanotubes de carbone isolés sont relargués pendant la sollicitation mécanique des nanocomposites, quel que soit l’état de dispersion des nanotubes de carbone. En revanche, les interactions entre les particules de matrice polymère et les nanotubes de carbone observés sur celles-ci, apparaissent extrêmement dépendantes de cet état de dispersion. / Carbon nanotubes (CNT) reinforced polymer-based composites represent a significant opportunity in terms of mechanical reinforcement and electrical and thermal conductivity improvements. However specific issues for nanotubes and related composites on human health are still under studied. It is strongly expected that standards and regulations on carbon nanotubes and on carbon nanotubes composites should appear soon. Due to their high aspect ratio they could migrate into breathing apparatus (because of their small diameter) and remain stuck to the walls (due to their length) causing damages like pulmonary fibrosis or cancer. Exposition of human people to carbon nanotubes must be controlled and an occupational exposure limit must be defined. That is why suppliers of carbon nanotubes have large interest to predict rules in controlling carbon nanotube release during the use of materials prepared from nanotubes, especially under abrasion or other cyclic mechanical solicitations. A key point is to check if a good dispersion state is a required condition to decrease isolated carbon nanotubes release. As the dispersion state of carbon nanotubes in polymer-based nanocomposites was known and controlled, standardized abrasion tests were performed in a glove box in order to simulate the wear use of a nanocomposite during its lifecycle, i.e. to generate particles. Released particles were collected on TEM grids and by particle sizing devices and these ones were analyzed in term of number, size and nature thanks to different characterization methods. Granulometric data, TEM micrographs and EDX measurements were all performed and founded to be influenced by several parameters amongst which the carbon nanotubes dispersion state. Carbon nanotubes were found in the abraded particles but never isolated from other polymer particles but could be linked to released polymer particles via Van der Waals interactions and physical entanglement. It clearly appears that the dispersion state of CNT has an influence on the shape and the aspect of released particles.

Urbane Räume sind aufgrund ihrer hohen Bevölkerungsdichtes sowie gesellschaftlichen und wirtschaftlichen Bedeutung besonders exponiert gegenüber äußeren Einflüssen und Umweltbelastungen. Sie sind klimatische Ungunsträume, in welchen sich besonders bei starken Hitzeereignissen eine hohe gesundheitliche Belastung entwickelt. Zudem sind Städte durch eine beträchtliche Lärmbelastung und Luftverschmutzung belastet. In der vorliegenden Dissertation wurde eine umweltbezogene Risikoanalyse anhand von Landschaftsstrukturmaßen umgesetzt, in dem Leipziger Stadtstrukturtypen hinsichtlich ihrer Belastung durch Verkehrslärm, Feinstaub und Oberflächentemperaturen untersucht wurden. Die höchsten Belastungen an Lärm und Feinstaub, als auch die höchsten Oberflächen-temperaturen treten in den Wohngebieten auf. Grünflächen und Kleingartenanlagen bilden dagegen Erholungsräume mit geringeren Oberflächentemperaturen und hohen Anteilen gering belasteter Flächen durch Lärm und Feinstaub. Eine gleichzeitige Analyse der vorhandenen Strukturmerkmale, Bebauungshöhe und Anteil an bebauter Fläche, ermöglichte die Betrachtung der Beeinflussung durch bestimmte Baustrukturen und deren Anordnung. Der Einsatz von Landschaftsstrukturmaßen ermöglicht eine kostengünstige und effiziente Analyse von Umweltbelastungen wie Lärm, Feinstaub und Hitze von unterschiedlichen Stadtstrukturtypen. Anhand von Landschaftsstrukturmaßen können die mit Stadtumbau und Neubau einhergehenden Verbesserungen oder Verschlechterungen der Luftschadstoff- und Lärmbelastung sowie Oberflächentemperaturen identifiziert werden. / In cause of their high population-density as well as social and economic importance, urban areas are particularly sensitive to external influences and environmental pollution. Under climate change and high noise and air pollution, green spaces, such as parks and urban forests, become increasingly important. The identification of highly polluted areas within the city or its residential districts can be helpful for city planners to proactively plan these areas and create open spaces. Sustainable effects on well-being and human health will be the outcome. The dissertation implemented an environmental risk analysis has been based on the quantitative concept of the landscape metrics. Typical structure types in Leipzig have been analysed for their exposure to traffic noise, air pollution and surface temperatures. The highest exposures of noise and airborne particles, as well as the highest surface temperatures were found in residential areas. In contrast green spaces and allotments form recreation areas with lower surface temperatures and high percentages of low exposured areas of noise and air pollution. A simultaneous analysis of existing structural features, building height and proportion of built area, allowed the consideration of the influence of certain structural conditions. The use of landscape metrics offered a cost-efficient analysis of the structure types and the prevailing exposure of the three environmental stressors. Bases on metrics such as edge and patch density and diversity indicés, land use structure changes going along with improvements or worsening of air and noise pollution as well as surface temperatures can be straightforward identified.

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The transportation sector is responsible for the majority of airborne particles and global energy consumption in urban areas. Its role in generating air pollution in urban areas is even more critical, as many visitors, commuters and citizens travel there daily for various reasons. Emissions released by transport fleets have an exhaust (tailpipe) and a non-exhaust (brake wears ) origin. Both exhaust and non-exhaust airborne particles can have destructive effects on the human cardiovascular and respiratory systems and even lead to premature deaths. This dissertation aims to estimate the amount of exhaust and brake emissions in a real case study by proposing an innovative methodology. For this purpose, different levels of study have been introduced, including the subsystem level, the system level, the environmental level and the suprasystem level. To address these levels, two approaches were proposed along with a data collection process. First, a comprehensive field survey was conducted in the area of Buonconsiglio Castle and data was collected on traffic and non-traffic during peak hours. Then, in the first approach, a state-of-the-art simulation-based method was presented to estimate the amount of exhaust emissions generated and the rate of fuel consumption in the case study using the VISSIM traffic microsimulation software and Enviver emission modeler at the suprasystem level. In order to calculate the results under different mobility conditions, a total of 18 scenarios were defined based on changes in vehicle speeds and the share of heavy vehicles (HV%) in the modal split. Subsequently, the scenarios were accurately modelled in the simulation software VISSIM and repeated 30 times with a simulation runtime of three hours. The results of the first approach confirmed the simultaneous effects of considering vehicle speed and HV % on fuel consumption and the amount of exhaust emissions generated. Furthermore, the sensitivity of exhaust emissions and fuel consumption to variations in vehicle speed was found to be much higher than HV %. In other words, the production of NOx and VOC emissions can be increased by up to 20 % by increasing the maximum speed of vehicles by 10 km/h. Conversely, increasing the HV percentage at the same speed does not seem to produce a significant change. Furthermore, increasing the speed from 30 km/h to 50 km/h increased CO emissions and fuel consumption by up to 33%. Similarly, a reduction in speed of 20 or 10 km/h with a 100% increase in HV resulted in a 40% and 27% decrease in exhaust emissions per seat, respectively. In the second approach, a novel methodology was proposed to estimate the number of brake particles in the case study. To achieve this goal, a downstream approach was proposed starting from the suprasystem level (microscopic traffic simulation models in VISSIM) and using a developed mathematical vehicle dynamics model at the system level to calculate the braking torques and angular velocities of the front and rear wheels, and proposes an artificial neural network (ANN) as a brake emission model, which has been appropriately trained and validated using emission data collected through more than 1000 experimental tribological tests on a reduced-scale dynamometer at the subsystem level (braking system). Consideration of this multi-level approach, from tribological to traffic-related aspects, is necessary for a realistic estimation of brake emissions. The proposed method was implemented on a targeted vehicle, a dominant SUV family car in the case study, considering real driving conditions. The relevant dynamic quantities of the targeted vehicle (braking torques and angular velocities of the wheels) were calculated based on the vehicle trajectory data such as speed and deceleration obtained from the traffic microsimulation models and converted into braking emissions via the artificial neural network. The total number of brake emissions emitted by the targeted vehicles was predicted for 10 iterations route by route and for the entire traffic network. The results showed that a large number of brake particles (in the order of billions of particles) are released by the targeted vehicles, which significantly affect the air quality in the case study. The results of this dissertation provide important information for policy makers to gain better insight into the rate of exhaust and brake emissions and fuel consumption in metropolitan areas and to understand their acute negative impacts on the health of citizens and commuters.