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Numerical modeling on air quality in an urban environment with changes of the aspect ratio and wind direction

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Abstract

Due to heavy traffic emissions within an urban environment, air quality during the last decade becomes worse year by year and hazard to public health. In the present work, numerical modeling of flow and dispersion of gaseous emissions from vehicle exhaust in a street canyon were investigated under changes of the aspect ratio and wind direction. The three-dimensional flow and dispersion of gaseous pollutants were modeled using a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model which was numerically solved using Reynolds-averaged Navier–Stokes (RANS) equations. The diffusion flow field in the atmospheric boundary layer within the street canyon was studied for different aspect ratios (W/H = 1/2, 3/4, and 1) and wind directions (θ = 90°, 112.5°, 135°, and 157.5°). The numerical models were validated against wind tunnel results to optimize the turbulence model. The numerical results agreed well with the wind tunnel results. The simulation demonstrated that the minimum concentration at the human respiration height within the street canyon was on the windward side for aspect ratios W/H = 1/2 and 1 and wind directions θ = 112.5°, 135°, and 157.5°. The pollutant concentration level decreases as the wind direction and aspect ratio increase. The wind velocity and turbulence intensity increase as the aspect ratio and wind direction increase.

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Acknowledgments

The author is grateful to anonymous reviewers for providing valuable comments on this work. This work was carried out with funding from Kuwait University under project research No. WE01/11.

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

    Mohamed F. Yassin

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  1. Mohamed F. Yassin
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Correspondence to Mohamed F. Yassin.

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Responsible editor: Michael Matthies

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Yassin, M.F. Numerical modeling on air quality in an urban environment with changes of the aspect ratio and wind direction. Environ Sci Pollut Res 20, 3975–3988 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-012-1270-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-012-1270-9

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