Title: Assessment of material deterioration in Bulgaria owing to air pollution

Authors: Hristo Chervenkov

Addresses: National Institute of Meteorology and Hydrology – Branch Plovdiv, 139 Russki Bulvd., 4000 Plovdiv, Bulgaria

Abstract: Atmospheric pollution is an important factor in material deterioration, including degradation of systems used for material protection. Owing to pollution, the lifetime of technological products is shortened. Buildings and other structures, as well as objects of cultural heritage exposed to the atmosphere, deteriorate more rapidly. The resulting physicochemical and economic damage can be significant – not to mention the loss of unique parts of our cultural heritage and hazards owing to endangered reliability of complicated technological devices. The process can be quantitatively estimated with dose–response functions that link the dose of pollution, measured in ambient concentration and/or deposition, to the rate of material corrosion. Also, as a result of weathering owing to especially acidifying pollutants, a significant part of the metals used in constructions and products are emitted to the biosphere with a potential hazard to the environment. In this work, the dose–response functions obtained from the UNECE ICP on Materials are used to estimate the deterioration rate for eight technological materials over the territory of Bulgaria.

Keywords: air pollution; acidification; corrosion; dose response function; Bulgaria; materials deterioration; materials protection; materials degradation; environmental pollution; technological materials.

DOI: 10.1504/IJEP.2007.016504

International Journal of Environment and Pollution, 2007 Vol.31 No.3/4, pp.385 - 393

Published online: 03 Jan 2008 *

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