Progress in a physical approach to contamination in Europe

Contamination modeling in Europe has long been based on physical mechanisms, such as desorption. However other physical mechanisms, such as diffusion, evaporation or mixing effects exist. These alternative mechanisms were experimentally evaluated and modelled. It was yet observed that, without an experimental capability to reliably separate the (re)emitted chemical species, it is very difficult to determine whether the modeling and its underlying physical mechanisms are representative of reality, or simply a mathematical fit of reality. This is the reason why in the last years emphasis was put on the experimental separation of species, mostly through TGA/MS coupling. This paper presents a review of these efforts and promising results on species separation to reach a really physical modeling of outgassing, deposition/reemission and UV synergy.