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Effect of Building Orientations on Gaseous Dispersion in Street Canyon: a Numerical Study

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Abstract

This paper studies the effects of building orientations on the gaseous pollutant dispersion released from vehicles exhaust in street canyons through computational fluid dynamics (CFD) numerical simulations using three k–ε turbulence models. Four building orientations of the street canyon were examined in the atmospheric boundary layer. The numerical results were validated against wind-tunnel results to optimize the turbulence models. The numerical results agreed well with the wind-tunnel results. The simulation demonstrated that the minimum concentration at the human respiration height in the street canyon was on the windward side for the building orientations θ = 112.5°, 135°, and 157.5°. The pollutant concentration level decreases as the building orientation increases from θ = 90°. The concentration in the cavity region for the building orientation θ = 90° was higher than for the wind directions θ = 112.5°, 135°, and 157.5°. The wind velocity and turbulence energy increase as the building orientation increases. The finding from this work can be used to help urban designers and policy-makers in several aspects.

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Acknowledgments

The author would like to thank the anonymous reviewers for providing valuable comments on this work. The project research is funded by Kuwait University (no. WR04/12).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Environmental Technology and Management, Kuwait University, P.O. Box 5969, Safat, 13060, Kuwait, Kuwait

    Mohamed F. Yassin

  2. Faculty of Engineering, Assiut University, Assiut, 71516, Egypt

    Mohamed F. Yassin & Mohamed A. Kassem

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  1. Mohamed F. Yassin
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  2. Mohamed A. Kassem
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Correspondence to Mohamed F. Yassin.

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Yassin, M.F., Kassem, M.A. Effect of Building Orientations on Gaseous Dispersion in Street Canyon: a Numerical Study. Environ Model Assess 19, 335–344 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10666-013-9389-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10666-013-9389-8

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