Mailin Samland about Particulate Matter from Tyre and Brake Wear

8 May 2025

When it comes to air pollution and fine particulate matter, most people initially think of exhaust emissions from road traffic. While this is certainly correct, there is another source that originates from vehicles: the wear particles generated from braking, as well as tyre wear in general. To effectively reduce pollutant emissions, it’s important to understand where these substances come from and how they disperse in the city. Mailin Samland from the Mesoscale and Microscale Modelling Group (MeMi) led by Dr. David Grawe initially explored this in her master's thesis. After some further developments, she published the results in 2024 under the title “Variability of aerosol particle concentrations from tyre and brake wear emissions in an urban area”. Ultimately, about 12 % of the total fine particulate matter concentrations on major roads stem from tyre and brake wear. In this video, Mailin explains how she arrived at these findings, including the methods and models she used.

English and German subtitles available – activate in YouTube!

This video is the sixth episode of our (M)et al. video series presenting scientists from the Meteorology at the University of Hamburg reporting on their current papers and thus offering an insight into our research topics and working methods.

Link to the paper: doi.org/10.1016/j.aeaoa.2024.100304