Can we model microplastics in QUAL2K?

[Adam Rus Nugroho]

Dear Dr. Flynn or anyone who knows..

I am not sure if we can do a microplastics modelling in QUAL2K.

I am aware that there are generic constituents in the QUAL2Kw and  Constituent 1 and 2 in the QUAL2K. Can somebody confirm that those constituent parameters can be used as a parameter of microplastic?

[Greg Pelletier]

Yes, the generic constituent in QUAL2Kw can be used for microplastic. It can be used for any constituent

[Adam Rus Nugroho]

I did not expect the main software developer himself responded to my question.

Thank you so much for responding and confirming, Mr. Greg Pelletier.

In our Environmental Engineering Dept. lately, the interest of microplastics topic is rising.

Therefore, I decided to ask the question.

Once again, thank you for the answer, Mr. Pelletier.

[Greg Pelletier]

Please keep us posted how it works out

[Adam Rus Nugroho]

Yes we will.

Now, it just comes to me: how about heavy metals?

Can we model heavy metals in QUAL2K by putting them into the generic constituent parameters?

[Greg Pelletier]

Yes, you can use the generic constituent for metals. It can be used for any variable. The only limitation is that the model will only account for settling and first-order decay of the constituent. This would probably be sufficient for the simulation of the total concentration of any particular heavy metal (e.g. total copper, or total zinc, or total concentration of any other metal). If you also need to account for the partitioning between particulate and dissolved phases of metals then the model does not have the capability to do that, but you could modify the source code to add that functionality if needed, or you could use an alternative modeling  framework such as WASP

On Saturday, March 23, 2024 at 9:01:54 PM UTC-7 adam...@uii.ac.id wrote:

[Adam Rus Nugroho]

Thank you for your response last time.

I want to ask again. In the QUAL2K, there is no Generic constituents as in the QUAL2Kw, instead there are three Constituent variables.

I tried to find the guidance on using the Constituents in the documentation of QUAL2K latest versions, but it seems that it is not exist. 

In the QUAL2Kw User Manual, there is an explanation on Generic constituents, that it accounts the first-order decay and the settling velocity.

I need to make sure that three Constituent variables in QUAL2K are getting the same treatment as the Generic Constituent in the QUAL2Kw.

After all, I need to include the reference of the model Constituent process in the paper I will write. Can we use the QUAL2Kw user manual as the reference on the (Generic) Constituent in QUAL2K?

To accomplish my quest, maybe I can look into the source code or such thing from the program itself, but I do not have enough skill to open up the program and finding a particular source code for the constituents. Even the source code in the website for qual2k cannot be accessed. The link to the Github shows the 404 page error ("This is not the web page you are looking for"). 

[Greg Pelletier]

The user manual for QUAL2Kw is not fully applicable to QUAL2K because of some differences between the two versions. 

Fortran source code for versions 5 and 6 of QUAL2Kw are available at my github repository at this link:

https://github.com/gjpelletier

[DANICA MAE PORLUCAS]

I am student researcher, may I ask if we can use QUAL2K to indetify microplastics on river water?

[Greg Pelletier]

Yes, the generic constituent can be used for microplastics