Atmospheric pollution is one of serious risk factors for human health. Especially the emission of solid aerosols, such as asbestos, carbon dust, heavy metals, etc., remains a huge problem for society. The size of particles can directly be linked to their potential for causing health problems. Particulate matter (PM10), which are particles smaller than 10 micrometers in diameter, pose the greatest problems, because they can get deep into the human body and deposit in the lungs or even infiltrate the bloodstream. To protect human health governments have set strict limit values for particulate matter (i.e. the EU has set a limit of 40 µg/m3 of PM10 in the atmosphere). However, in order to prevent pollution it is important to monitor the amount of emitted particles directly at the source, which requires capable sensor systems.

This talk will give an overview how well radar technology may be suited for this task and will show its benefits compared to other methods. The physical relations of turbulent particle streams, electromagnetic scattering and the radar equation are discussed. Furthermore, insight is provided into the development process of the multistatic dual-frequent sensor system operating at 91.5 GHz and 150.3 GHz. Finally, measurement results obtained in various experiments covering different scenarios are presented.

Speaker(s): Alwin Reinhardt,

Location:
Room: MC603
Bldg: McConnell Engineering
3480 Rue University
Montreal, Quebec
H3A 0E9