UpDate - Vol. 12, No. 24, Page 1
March 18, 1993
Air pollution study receives $1.24 million grant from IBM

     The IBM Corp., as part of its Environmental Research Program, has
awarded $1.24 million to Anthony S. Wexler, assistant professor of
mechanical engineering at the University of Delaware, and John H. Seinfeld,
Louis E. Nohl Professor and chairperson of the Division of Engineering and
Applied Science at the California Institute of Technology, for a five-year
program designed to improve the way air quality is studied.
     Wexler and Seinfeld will use advanced computer technology to develop
the next major step in air quality modeling, thus enhancing the tools
available to those trying to control air pollution.
     Air pollution is one of the most serious and pervasive environmental
problems in the world, Wexler said, and regulators attempting to control
the problem use mathematical models to relate the emission of pollutants to
their effect on air quality.
     "These models enable them to investigate how different courses of
action may affect the environment and to devise strategies for achieving
optimal cost-effective reductions in air pollution levels," he explained.
     Such models are crucial to the process, Wexler said, because an
effective response to one problem may exacerbate or disproportionately
influence another in seemingly unpredictable ways. For example, reducing
sulfur dioxide emissions to limit the problem of acid rain could affect
cloud and aerosol dynamics and ultimately accelerate the greenhouse effect.
     Because of computing constraints, the mathematical models now in use
have been limited to gaseous species, such as carbon monoxide, sulfur
dioxide, nitrogen oxides and hydrocarbons, and secondary pollutants such as
ozone and nitric acid, Wexler said, but the new model will provide an
integrated treatment of gases, particles (aerosols) and droplets.
     The addition of particles and droplets to the model will require about
10 times the computing power used in current models. To accomplish this,
the U.D.-Caltech project will use 20 IBM RISC/6000 advanced workstations,
each of which is capable of performing 20-25 million floating-point
operations per second.
     Developing the model is particularly complex because of the number of
variables that might be involved, according to the researchers. Once a
chemical is released into the air there are many processes that can affect
it.
     The project is divided into two primary parts: model development and
testing, which will be Wexler's main activity; and visualization, or
developing ways to present the huge amount of data developed by the model
in an understandable manner, which will be Seinfeld's emphasis.
     Once the model is developed, Wexler and Seinfeld will work with
scientists in Mexico City and Athens-cities with serious urban air
pollution problems. Humberto Bravo of the University of Mexico and Spyros
Pandis of the University of Patras will prepare data bases on their
respective cities and then use the new model to try to solve problems
there.
     "IBM is sponsoring this research to stimulate technological
breakthroughs leading to innovative solutions for some of the world's
toughest environmental problems," Arthur J. Hedge Jr., IBM vice president
of environmental affairs, said.
     A member of the Delaware faculty since 1991, Wexler has coauthored
several articles on air pollution with Seinfeld.
     In addition to his air pollution work, he is  involved in numerical
modeling of the urine concentration mechanism in the mammalian kidney and,
with Stuart Binder-Macleod, assistant professor of physical therapy at
U.D., dynamics of muscle contractions in response to external electrical
stimulation.