The CAL3QHCR (California Line Source for Queuing & Hot Spot Calculations Refined) model was used to assess the contribution of particulate matter (PM10 and PM2.5) from vehicular exhausts to the air quality of a specific site downtown Belo Horizonte (MG), Brazil. Concentration results obtained through simulations were compared to the experimental data of concentrations of PM10 and PM2.5 which consisted of collected samples of these pollutants from a monitoring station for air quality located in the area of the study. For all scenarios, the concentration values predicted by the model were lower than the experimental concentrations. The sensitivity analysis showed that the vehicular emission factor influenced the simulation results more than the other parameters, which points out to the need of more researches in this area in Brazil.
Air quality; vehicle pollution; particulate matter; numerical simulation
