Mathematical models for removal of particulate pollutant in presence of plant canopies

Mathematical models have been presented to study the effect of plant canopies in reducing the concentration of pollutants. Various physical processes namely advection, diffusion, settling, deposition and combined influence of sedimentation & impaction have been considered. An elevated cross wind continuous line source of pollutant is considered. The wind velocity & coefficient of diffusivity have been taken as function of z inside the canopy though they are constant around and above the canopy. In order to obtain numerical solution a mixed finite difference and finite difference schemes are used to study the transient and steady state models respectively. Lagrangian frame is used to solve the advection step, while Eulerian frame is applied to rest of the processes. The results confirm the first hand expectation numerically that presence of canopy may reduce pollution of concentration remarkably.