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Wind-Induced Dispersion of Pollutants in the Urban Environment

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Advanced Environmental Wind Engineering

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Abstract

Predicting air and pollutant flow around buildings in an urban environment is a very complex problem affecting building design and performance. This chapter presents some of the new developments in this field, as far as the assessment of pollutant concentrations is concerned and the evolving design guidelines in this area. Particular emphasis is placed on the results of wind tunnel studies to assess the influence of adjacent buildings and rooftop structures on near-field pollutant dispersion by considering various parameters, such as stack height, exhaust momentum and spacing between buildings. A general discussion of the various ASHRAE models, as well as comparisons with wind tunnel results for a few adjacent building configurations, is presented. Application of ADMS, a Gaussian-based dispersion model, on near-field pollutant dispersion is also discussed. Comparisons for computational fluid dynamics (CFD) results and wind tunnel data for a particular case are made. The limitations of ASHRAE and CFD models to predict realistic dilutions for particular building configurations, besides suggestions to improve them, are discussed. Guidelines regarding appropriate stack and intake locations to avoid plume reingestion are also presented.

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Acknowledgements

The financial contribution of the Institut de recherche Robert-Sauvé en santé et en sécurité du travail (IRSST), Montreal, Canada, is gratefully acknowledged.

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Author notes

  1. B. Hajra

    Present address: International Hurricane Research Centre, Florida International University, Miami, FL, USA

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Building, Civil and Environmental Engineering, Concordia University, Montreal, QC, H3G 1M8, Canada

    Ted Stathopoulos & B. Hajra

Authors
  1. Ted Stathopoulos
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  2. B. Hajra
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Ted Stathopoulos .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Atsugi, Japan

    Yukio Tamura

  2. Tokyo Polytechnic University, Atsugi, Japan

    Ryuichiro Yoshie

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Stathopoulos, T., Hajra, B. (2016). Wind-Induced Dispersion of Pollutants in the Urban Environment. In: Tamura, Y., Yoshie, R. (eds) Advanced Environmental Wind Engineering. Springer, Tokyo. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-4-431-55912-2_7

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