Impact of building configuration on air quality in street canyon

• Published in: Atmospheric environment (1994) Vol. 39; no. 25; pp. 4519 - 4530
• Main Authors: Xie, Xiaomin, Huang, Zhen, Wang, Jia-song
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford Elsevier Ltd 01-08-2005; Elsevier Science
• Subjects: Applied sciences; Atmospheric pollution; Building configuration; Exact sciences and technology; Numerical simulation; Pollutants physicochemistry study: properties, effects, reactions, transport and distribution; Pollution; Street canyon; Wind tunnel data; Germany, Hamburg; Street canyon; Numerical simulation; Building configuration; Wind tunnel data; Validation; Turbulent flow; Buildings; Pollutant behavior; Measurement result; Environmental factor; Air quality; Motor vehicle; Urban area; Flow field; Transport process; Three dimensional model; Wind tunnel; Algorithm performance; Atmospheric boundary layer; Air pollution; Exhaust gas; Road traffic; Atmospheric dispersion
• ISSN: 1352-2310; 1873-2844
• DOI: 10.1016/j.atmosenv.2005.03.043

The objective of this study is to provide a simulation of emissions from vehicle exhausts in a street canyon within an urban environment. Standard, RNG and Chen–Kim
k
–
ε
turbulence models are compared with the wind tunnel measured data for optimization of turbulence model. In the first approach, the investigation is made into the effect of the different roof shapes and ambient building structures. The results indicate that the in-canyon vortex dynamics (e.g. vortex orientation) and the characteristics of pollutant dispersion are dependent on the roof shapes and ambient building structures strongly. A second set of calculations for a three-dimensional simulation of the street canyon setup was performed to investigate the influence of building geometry on pollutant dispersion. The validation of the numerical model was evaluated using an extensive experimental database obtained from the atmospheric boundary layer wind tunnel at the Meteorological Institute of Hamburg University, Germany (Studie on different roof geometries in a simplified urban environment, 1995). The studies give evidence that roof shapes, the ambient building configurations and building geometries are important factors determining the flow patterns and pollutant dispersion in street canyon.