Implementing Aerosol Coagulation in the QUIC-Fire/QUIC-SMOKE Model

The QUIC (Quick Urban and Industrial Complex) model uses the Lagrangian random-walk method to determine the transport and dispersion of plumes. QUIC-Fire and QUIC-SMOKE are sub-models that determine the extent of fire spread and production of smoke. This is used to help model the impact of fire and smoke on nearby communities, from prescribed burns or from wildfires. The Lagrangian method is used in order to produce model results on the time scale of hours to produce fast predictions that can be used for quick response by fire management teams.

There are some existing physics in the model for atmospheric aerosols, mainly related to atmospheric deposition and dosages. We emphasize other related aerosol effects that are currently missing in QUIC: nucleation, condensation, and coagulation.

Our current research to integrate these effects into the model is focused on the coagulation of particulates released by combustion. General coagulation equations for the QUIC-SMOKE model were determined and are being implemented into the model. Coagulation will be applied to the model per constituent in order to determine their concentration over time and their impacts on smoke plume behavior during and after a fire event. Particle coagulation impact will be explored by focusing on PM2.5 soot particle coagulation. Model data will be compared with experimental data performed by LANL’s Earth and Environment Sciences (EES) division in order to determine the validity of the model output as it is so far. Thus we strive to achieve more resolved smoke plume characteristics using smoke aerosol coagulation without gaining excessive computational cost.