Spatiotemporal variations and reduction of air pollutants during the COVID-19 pandemic in a megacity of Yangtze River Delta in China.

In recent decades, air pollution has become an important environmental problem in the megacities of eastern China. How to control air pollution in megacities is still a challenging issue because of the complex pollutant sources, atmospheric chemistry, and meteorology. There is substantial uncertainty in accurately identifying the contributions of transport and local emissions to the air quality in megacities. The COVID-19 outbreak has prompted a nationwide public lockdown period and provides a valuable opportunity for understanding the sources and factors of air pollutants. The three-month period of continuous field observations for aerosol particles and gaseous pollutants, which extended from January 2020 to March 2020, covered urban, urban-industry, and suburban areas in the typical megacity of Hangzhou in the Yangtze River Delta in eastern China. In general, the concentrations of PM2.5-10, PM2.5, NOx, SO2, and CO reduced 58%, 47%, 83%, 11% and 30%, respectively, in the megacity during the COVID-Lock period. The reduction proportions of PM2.5 and CO were generally higher in urban and urban-industry areas than those in suburban areas. NOx exhibited the greatest reduction (>80%) among all the air pollutants, and the reduction was similar in the urban, urban-industry, and suburban areas. O3 increased 102%-125% during the COVID-Lock period. The daytime elevation of the planetary boundary layer height can reduce 30% of the PM10, PM2.5, NOx and CO concentrations on the ground in Hangzhou. During the long-range transport events, air pollutants on the regional scale likely contribute 40%-90% of the fine particles in the Hangzhou urban area. The findings highlight the future control and model forecasting of air pollutants in Hangzhou and similar megacities in eastern China.

Experimental study of shear and hydraulic bonding strength between casing and cement under complex temperature and pressure conditions.

The cement sheath plays a vital role in preventing gas channelling. It is important to understand the interfacial bonding between the casing and cement sheath when the downhole temperature and pressure change. This paper demonstrates the results of an experimental study to investigate the effect of high temperature and high pressure and their variations on the cement sheath interfacial bonding strength (CSIBS). An experimental device was developed that is used to test the shear and hydraulic bonding strength with the method of uniaxial compression and gas channelling. The results show that both temperature and pressure have a significant influence on the CSIBS. As the curing temperature increases with a constant curing time or as the curing time increases with a constant curing temperature, the CSIBS first increases and then converges to a stable value. The casing roughness has a crucial effect on the shear bonding strength but little effect on the hydraulic bonding strength. Though the CSIBS decreases obviously with the decrease in temperature, it undergoes little change when the temperature first increases and then recovers to the initial value. When the internal casing pressure decreases to a certain value or first increases to a certain value followed by recovery to the initial state, the hydraulic bonding strength tends to be 0 MPa, which means that the interface undergoes debonding between the casing and cement.

[Pollution Characteristics and Light Extinction Contribution of Water-soluble Ions of PM2.5 in Hangzhou].

The pollution characteristics and light extinction contribution of water-soluble ions of PM2.5 in Hangzhou were investigated by sampling and laboratory analysis of aerosol samplers in 2013. The water-soluble ions were dominant in PM2.5 and the total mass concentration was 37.5 µg·m-3, accounting for 44.4% of the PM2.5 mass concentration. Water-soluble ions were mainly composed of secondary ions(SO42-,NO3- and NH4+), which accounted for 83.4% of total ions. The highest mass concentrations of PM2.5 and major ions were observed in winter and the lowest in summer. The proportions of water-soluble ions in PM2.5 in summer and autumn were obviously higher than those in winter and spring and proportions of secondary ions in water-soluble ions were very close in each season. The contribution was the greatest to PM2.5 from secondary ions generation caused by fuel combustion and automobile exhaust. The annual average values of SOR and NOR were 0.27 and 0.15 respectively, the conversion rate of SO2 in atmosphere was greater than that of NOx. There was obvious positive correlation between SOR or NOR and humidity which indicated the important contribution of heterogeneous oxidation process to the generation of SO42- and NO3-. The annual average of[NO3-]/[SO42-] was 0.63, and the aerosol pollution was primarily affected by emissions from coal burning. In haze days, with the increase of haze pollution level, the mass concentrations of PM2.5, water-soluble ions, secondary ions as well as SOR and NOR all increased gradually, and the stable weather condition in haze days could efficiently promote the accumulation and secondary conversion of pollutants. There were obvious positive correlations between mass concentrations of PM2.5 and SNA and the atmospheric light extinction coefficient. The IMPROVE formula which was used to calculate the light extinction coefficients of different chemical components could efficiently indicate the tendency of aerosol scattering. The extinction contribution of SNA could reach 60.8%. The extinction coefficient of SNA was the highest in winter and lowest in summer, and its value and contribution proportion both increased gradually as the haze pollution level rose.