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. 2014 Nov 11;9(11):e112195.
doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0112195. eCollection 2014.

Study on the traffic air pollution inside and outside a road tunnel in Shanghai, China

Rui Zhou  1 , Shanshan Wang  2 , Chanzhen Shi  1 , Wenxin Wang  1 , Heng Zhao  1 , Rui Liu  1 , Limin Chen  1 , Bin Zhou  3
Affiliations

Study on the traffic air pollution inside and outside a road tunnel in Shanghai, China

Rui Zhou et al. PLoS One. .

Abstract

To investigate the vehicle induced air pollution situations both inside and outside the tunnel, the field measurement of the pollutants concentrations and its diurnal variations was performed inside and outside the Xiangyin tunnel in Shanghai from 13:00 on April 24th to 13:00 on April 25th, 2013. The highest hourly average concentrations of pollutants were quantified that CO, NO, NO2 and NOX inside the tunnel were 13.223 mg/m3, 1.829 mg/m3, 0.291 mg/m3 and 3.029 mg/m3, respectively, while the lowest ones were 3.086 mg/m3, 0.344 mg/m3, 0.080 mg/m3 and 0.619 mg/m3. Moreover, the concentrations of pollutants were higher during the daytime, and lower at night, which is relevant to the traffic conditions inside the tunnel. Pollutants concentrations inside the tunnel were much higher than those outside the tunnel. Then in a case of slow wind, the effect of wind is much smaller than the impact of pollution sources. Additionally, the PM2.5 concentrations climbed to the peak sharply (468.45 µg/m3) during the morning rush hours. The concentrations of organic carbon (OC) and elemental carbon (EC) in PM2.5 inside the tunnel were 37.09-99.06 µg/m3 and 22.69-137.99 µg/m3, respectively. Besides, the OC/EC ratio ranged from 0.72 to 2.19 with an average value of 1.34. Compared with the results of other tunnel experiments in Guangzhou and Shenzhen, China, it could be inferred that the proportion of HDVs through the Xiangyin tunnel is relatively lower.

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Conflict of interest statement

Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1. Traffic volume from 13:00 on April 24th to 13:00 on April 25th in the Xiangyin tunnel (south bore).
Figure 2
Figure 2. The correlation between the traffic volume and pollutants (NO, NO2, NOX, CO) concentrations inside the tunnel.
Figure 3
Figure 3. Comparisons of pollutants concentrations inside and outside the tunnel (a: CO, b: NO, c: NO2, d: NOX; shaded areas: the period of the fan working).
Figure 4
Figure 4. Ratios of NO and NO2 concentrations inside and outside the tunnel (shaded area: the period of the fan working).
Figure 5
Figure 5. Fitting results of NO, NO2, CO with NOX (a: NO, NO2 inside the tunnel, b: NO, NO2 outside the tunnel, c: CO inside the tunnel, d: CO outside the tunnel).
Figure 6
Figure 6. Hourly average meteorological parameters and pollutants concentrations measured by the monitoring van outside the tunnel (a: wind direction, b: wind speed, c: pollutants concentrations; shaded area: the period of the fan working).
Figure 7
Figure 7. Average meteorological parameters and pollutants concentrations in 5 minutes intervals from 7:00 to 10:00 on April 25th (a: wind direction, b: wind speed, c: pollutants concentrations).
Figure 8
Figure 8. PM2.5 concentrations and OC and EC concentrations in PM2.5, as well as the OC/EC ratio inside the tunnel (shaded area: the period of the fan working).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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