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Large-Eddy Simulation of Pollutant Removal from a Three-Dimensional Street Canyon

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Abstract

Large-eddy simulations were conducted to investigate the mechanism of pollutant removal from a three-dimensional street canyon. Five block configurations with aspect ratios (building height to length) of 1, 2, 4, 8 and \(\infty \) were used to create an urban-like array. A pollutant was released from a ground-level line source at the centre of the target canyon floor. For smaller aspect ratios, the relative contribution of the turbulent mass flux to net mass flux at the roof level, which was spatially averaged along the roof-level ventilation area, was closer to unity, indicating that turbulent motions mainly affected pollutant removal from the top of the canyon. As aspect ratio increased, the relative contribution became smaller, owing to strong upwind motions. However, the relative contribution again reached near unity for the infinite aspect ratio (i.e. a two-dimensional street canyon) because of lowered lateral flow convergence. At least 75 % of total emissions from the three-dimensional street canyon were attributable to turbulent motions. Pollutant removal by turbulent motions was related to the coherent structures of low-momentum fluid above the canyons. Though the coherent structure size of the low-momentum fluid differed, the positions of low-momentum fluid largely corresponded to instantaneous high concentrations of pollutant above the target canyon, irrespective of canyon geometry.

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Acknowledgments

This research was supported by the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS), KAKENHI (25820289).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Environmental Science Research Laboratory, Central Research Institute of Electric Power Industry, 1646 Abiko, Abiko-shi, Chiba-ken, 270-1194, Japan

    Takenobu Michioka, Hiroshi Takimoto & Ayumu Sato

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  1. Takenobu Michioka
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  2. Hiroshi Takimoto
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  3. Ayumu Sato
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Correspondence to Takenobu Michioka.

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Michioka, T., Takimoto, H. & Sato, A. Large-Eddy Simulation of Pollutant Removal from a Three-Dimensional Street Canyon. Boundary-Layer Meteorol 150, 259–275 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10546-013-9870-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10546-013-9870-6

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