Numerical Study on the Impact of Ground Heating and Ambient Wind Speed on Flow Fields in Street Canyons

The impact of ground heating on flow fields in street canyons under different ambient wind speed conditions was studied based on numerical methods.A series of numerical tests were performed,and three factors including height-to-width(H/W) ratio,ambient wind speed and ground heating intensity were taken into account.Three types of street canyon with H/W ratios of 0.5,1.0 and 2.0,respectively,were used in the simulation and seven speed values ranging from 0.0 to 3.0 m s 1 were set for the ambient wind speed.The ground heating intensity,which was defined as the difference between the ground temperature and air temperature,ranged from 10 to 40 K with an increase of 10 K in the tests.The results showed that under calm conditions,ground heating could induce circulation with a wind speed of around 1.0 m s 1,which is enough to disperse pollutants in a street canyon.It was also found that an ambient wind speed threshold may exist for street canyons with a fixed H/W ratio.When ambient wind speed was lower than the threshold identified in this study,the impact of the thermal effect on the flow field was obvious,and there existed a multi-vortex flow pattern in the street canyon.When the ambient wind speed was higher than the threshold,the circulation pattern was basically determined by dynamic effects.The tests on the impact of heating intensity showed that a higher ground heating intensity could strengthen the vortical flow within the street canyon,which would help improve pollutant diffusion capability in street canyons.     

二维街谷地面加热引起的流场特征的水槽实验研究

利用拖曳式水槽,采用激光粒子成像速度场测量系统(PIV),模拟了街谷存在地面加热时流场特征;讨论了环境风场对其的影响。我们发现在静风条件下,街谷中环流完全由热力驱动,对流活动可伸展至街谷上方;在建筑物层顶以上,也可发现水平和垂直方向的运动。这些对流活动有助于基本风场为零时,街谷内外动量和物质的交换。当街谷较宽时,对流形成的涡旋可能为两个以上,形态较为复杂并随时间变化,当街谷变窄时,涡旋蜕化成只有一个。当有弱环境风场存在时,街谷中的对流呈现为一个主涡旋,随着风速增加,涡旋形状更加规则,其中心并向下风向移动。     

公路和城市街渠机动车大气污染物扩散模式发展综述

随着城市机动车数量的增加，机动车尾气污染已经成为城市污染物的重要来源。研究机动车尾气扩散规律，可为公路建设，车流量控制，街道大气污染的监测、评价与防治提供科学依据。对公路机动车污染物扩散模型的发展进行了回顾，详细论述了高斯模式、数值模式、统计模式等模式的发展历程及其目前存在的问题，并比较了几种典型模式的性能优劣及其各种条件下的适用性。随后对城市街渠峡谷机动车污染物扩散模型进行专述，指出了街渠峡谷模式研究的难点在于街渠流场模拟，介绍了国外最新街渠流场研究方法。最后提出了当前机动车大气污染物扩散模型存在的主要困难，展望了其解决途径和发展的方向。     

Effects of a Building's Density on Flow in Urban Areas

The effects of a building's density on urban flows are investigated using a CFD model with the RNG k-ε turbulence closure scheme. Twenty-seven cases with different building's density parameters (e.g., building and street-canyon aspect ratios) are numerically simulated. As the building's density parameters vary, different flow regimes appear. When the street canyon is relatively narrow and high, two counter-rotating vortices in the vertical direction are generated. The wind speed along streets is mainly affected by the building's length. However, it is very difficult to find or generalize the characteristics of the street-canyon flows in terms of a single building's density parameter. This is because the complicated flow patterns appear due to the variation of the vortex structure and vortex number. Volume-averaged vorticity magnitude is a very good indicator to reflect the flow characteristics despite the strong dependency of flows on the variation of the building's density parameters. Multi-linear regression shows that the volume-averaged vorticity magnitude is a strong function of the building's length and the street-canyon width. The increase in the building's length decreases the vorticity of the street-canyon flow, while, the increase in the street-canyon width increases the vorticity.     

Radiative Exchange in an Urban Street Canyon

The influence of building geometry on the radiation terms ofthe surface energy balance is a principal reason for surfacetemperature differences between rural and urban areas.Methods exist to calculate the radiation balance in an urban area,but their validity across the range of urban geometries andmaterials has not been carefully considered.Here the exchange of diffuse radiation in an urban street canyon isinvestigated using a method incorporating all reflections of radiation.This exact solution is compared to two commonly used approximationsthat retain either no reflections, or just one reflection of radiation.The area-averaged net radiative flux density from the facets of the canyondecreases in magnitude monotonically as the canyon aspect ratio increases.The two approximate solutions possess unphysical differences from thismonotonic decrease for high canyon aspect ratios or low materialemissivities/high material albedos.The errors of the two approximate solutions are small for near blackbodymaterials and small canyon aspect ratios but can be an order ofmagnitude for intermediate material properties and deep street canyons.Urban street canyon models need to consider at least one reflectionof radiation and multiple reflections are desirable for full applicability.     

Large-Eddy Simulation of Flow and Pollutant Transport in Urban Street Canyons with Ground Heating

Our study employed large-eddy simulation (LES) based on a one-equation subgrid-scale model to investigate the flow field and pollutant dispersion characteristics inside urban street canyons. Unstable thermal stratification was produced by heating the ground of the street canyon. Using the Boussinesq approximation, thermal buoyancy forces were taken into account in both the Navier–Stokes equations and the transport equation for subgrid-scale turbulent kinetic energy (TKE). The LESs were validated against experimental data obtained in wind-tunnel studies before the model was applied to study the detailed turbulence, temperature, and pollutant dispersion characteristics in the street canyon of aspect ratio 1. The effects of different Richardson numbers (Ri) were investigated. The ground heating significantly enhanced mean flow, turbulence, and pollutant flux inside the street canyon, but weakened the shear at the roof level. The mean flow was observed to be no longer isolated from the free stream and fresh air could be entrained into the street canyon at the roof-level leeward corner. Weighed against higher temperature, the ground heating facilitated pollutant removal from the street canyon.     

Flow in a Street Canyon for any External Wind Direction

An analytical model has been developed for the flow along a street canyon (of height H and width W), generated by an external wind blowing at any angle relative to the axis of the street. Initially, we consider the special case of a wind blowing parallel to the street. The interior of the street is decomposed into three regions, and the flow within each region is assumed to depend only on the external wind and the distance to the closest solid boundary. This decomposition leads to two different flow regimes: one for narrow streets (H/W > 1/2) and one for wide streets (H/W < 1/2). The theoretical model agrees well with results obtained from numerical simulations using a Reynolds-Averaged Navier–Stokes model. We then generalize the model to the case of arbitrary wind direction. Numerical solutions show that the streamlines of the mean flow in the street have a spiral form, and for most angles of incidence, the mass flux along the street scales on the component of the external wind resolved parallel to the street. We use this result to generalize the model derived for wind blowing parallel to the street, and the results from this model agree well with the numerical simulations. The model that has been developed can be evaluated rapidly using only very modest computing power, so it is suitable for use as an operational tool.     

On the Impact of Trees on Dispersion Processes of Traffic Emissions in Street Canyons

Wind-tunnel studies of dispersion processes of traffic exhaust in urban street canyons with tree planting were performed and tracer gas concentrations using electron capture detection (ECD) and flow fields using laser Doppler velocimetry (LDV) were measured. It was found that tree planting reduces the air exchange between street canyons and the ambience. In comparison to treeless street canyons, higher overall pollutant concentrations and lower flow velocities were measured. In particular, for perpendicular approaching wind, markedly higher concentrations at the leeward canyon wall and slightly lower concentrations at the windward canyon wall were observed. Furthermore, a new approach is suggested to model porous vegetative structures such as tree crowns for small-scale wind-tunnel applications. The approach is based on creating different model tree crown porosities by incorporating a certain amount of wadding material into a specified volume. A significant influence of the crown porosity on pollutant concentrations was found for high degrees of porosity, however, when it falls below a certain threshold, no further changes in pollutant concentrations were observed.     

城市街谷几何结构对街谷内流场及污染物浓度场影响的数值模拟

利用数值模拟方法研究了微尺度街道峡谷范围内街谷几何结构及街道两侧建筑物高度对称性对街谷内流场及机动车排放污染物扩散规律的影响。结果表明:当街道峡谷高宽比>2.1时,街谷内的流场结构由一个完整的垂直涡旋变为上下两个反向运动的强弱不同的垂直涡旋。各类型街谷内污染物扩散水平从强到弱依次为迎风面建筑物高度大于背风面建筑物高度的街道峡谷,迎风面建筑物高度小于背风面建筑物高度的街道峡谷;平行型街道峡谷。     

太原冬季采暖期气温变化特征与节能效应分析

采用太原市1951～2003年冬季采暖期逐日气温资料,应用气候方法分析了采暖期平均气温以及与能耗相关的采暖初日、终日、采暖度日等要素的变化特征.结果表明:采暖期气温存在明显升高趋势.而且在20世纪80年代末发生跃变;采暖初日在逐年推后,采暖终日的年代际变化振荡较大,90年代以来有明显提前趋势,采暖期在逐年缩短;采暖度日存在明显减少趋势.结合供暖指标,分别从平均气温升高、采暖期缩短及采暖度日减少等方面进行节能效应分析,指出有必要改变传统的采暖模式.城市采暖具有很大的节能潜力.     

Large-Eddy Simulation of Flow and Pollutant Dispersion in High-Aspect-Ratio Urban Street Canyons with Wall Model

A large-eddy simulation (LES) with a one-equation subgrid-scale (SGS) model was developed to investigate the flow field and pollutant dispersion inside street canyons of high aspect ratio (AR). A 1/7th power-law wall model was implemented near rigid walls to mitigate the demanding near-wall resolution requirements in LES. This LES model had been extensively validated against experimental results for street canyons of AR = 1 and 2 before it was applied to the cases of AR = 3 and 5. A ground-level passive pollutant line source, located in the middle of the street, was used to simulate vehicular emissions. Three and five vertically aligned primary recirculations were developed in the street canyons of AR 3 and 5, respectively. The ground-level mean wind speed was less than 0.5% of the free stream value, which makes it difficult for the pollutant to be transported upward for removal. High pollutant concentration and variance were found near the buildings where the air flow is upwards. It was found that the velocity fluctuation, pollutant concentration and variance were all closely related to the interactions between the primary recirculations and/or the free surface layer. Several quantities, which are non-linear functions of AR, were introduced to quantify the air quality in street canyons of different configurations.     

Using the OSPM Model on Pollutant Dispersion in an Urban Street Canyon

An observational campaign was conducted in the street canyon of Zhujiang Road in Nanjing city in 2007.Hourly mean concentrations of PM10 were measured at street and roof levels.The Operational Street Pollution Model(OSPM)street canyon dispersion model was used to calculate the street concentrations and the results were compared with the measurements.The results show that there is good agreement between measured and predicted concentrations.The correlation coecient R2 values(R2 is a measure of the correlation of the predicted and measured time series of concentrations)are 0.5319,0.8044,and 0.6630 for the scatter plots of PM10 corresponding to light wind speed conditions,higher wind speed conditions,and all wind speed conditions,respectively.PM10 concentrations tend to be smaller for the higher wind speed cases and decrease rapidly with increasing wind speed.The presentations of measured and modelled concentration dependence on wind direction show fairly good agreement.PM10 concentrations measured on the windward side are relatively smaller,compared with the corresponding results for the leeward side.This study demonstrates that it is possible to use the OSPM to model PM10 dispersion rules for an urban street canyon.     

Flow and Pollutant Transport in Urban Street Canyons of Different Aspect Ratios with Ground Heating: Large-Eddy Simulation

A validated large-eddy simulation model was employed to study the effect of the aspect ratio and ground heating on the flow and pollutant dispersion in urban street canyons. Three ground-heating intensities (neutral, weak and strong) were imposed in street canyons of aspect ratio 1, 2, and 0.5. The detailed patterns of flow, turbulence, temperature and pollutant transport were analyzed and compared. Significant changes of flow and scalar patterns were caused by ground heating in the street canyon of aspect ratio 2 and 0.5, while only the street canyon of aspect ratio 0.5 showed a change in flow regime (from wake interference flow to skimming flow). The street canyon of aspect ratio 1 does not show any significant change in the flow field. Ground heating generated strong mixing of heat and pollutant; the normalized temperature inside street canyons was approximately spatially uniform and somewhat insensitive to the aspect ratio and heating intensity. This study helps elucidate the combined effects of urban geometry and thermal stratification on the urban canyon flow and pollutant dispersion.     

Effects of Wall Heating on Flow Characteristics in a Street Canyon

We develop a large-eddy simulation (LES) model based on a meteorological numerical model for a real scale street-canyon flow with rough building facets heated by a given temperature. The model is applied to a canyon with the aspect ratio of unity for two idealized heating scenarios: (1) the roof and the entire upstream wall are heated, named as ‘assisting cases’, and (2) the roof and the entire downstream wall are heated, named as ‘opposing cases’. These facets were heated up to 15 K above the air temperature. A wall function for temperature is proposed for a rough facet with an assumption that the thermal roughness length, z _0T, is much smaller than the aerodynamic roughness length, z ₀. It is demonstrated that the sensible heat flux and canyon-air temperature are significantly influenced by the near-facet process that is parametrized by z _0T as the primary factor; other processes such as in-canyon mixing and roof-level exchange are secondary. This new finding strongly suggests that it is vital to choose an appropriate value of z _0T in a numerical simulation of street-canyon flows with the facet-air exchange processes of heat or any scalar. The finding also raises an awareness of the demand for carefully designed laboratory or field experiments of quantifying z _0T values for various urban surfaces. For the opposing cases, an unsteady penetrating narrow updraft zone appears occasionally along the heated wall and this feature is consistent field observations. The unique result indicates the superior capability of LES. The results of this study can be used to guide the parametrization of turbulent processes inside the urban canopy layer.     

城市街道峡谷对称性对内部气流场的影响研究

应用雷诺应力湍流模型,模拟了不同高度比的城市街道峡谷的气流场。结果表明:峡谷的对称性对其内部气流场有显著影响。前高后低型峡谷下部为逆时针旋涡,上部为顺时针旋涡,峡谷越深,流场发展的越充分;峡谷内部墙面存在明显的驻点。前低后高型峡谷只存在一个大的顺时针旋涡,随着峡谷的加深,内部气流速率有减小的趋势;峡谷达到一定深度后出现驻点。对称型峡谷内部形成了顺时针旋涡,强度不大;随着峡谷的加深,内部流场转为一顺一反2个旋涡的二元结构;仅当峡谷很深时才出现明显驻点。前低后高型峡谷的气流场形式更有利于污染物的迁移、扩散,在城市规划中应尽量结合主导风向设计这类建筑布局。     

Numerical studies on flow fields around buildings in an Urban street canyon and cross-road

The questions on how vortices are constructed and on the relationship between the flow patterns and concentration distributions in real street canyons are the most pressing questions in pollution control studies. In this paper, the very large eddy simulation (VLES) and large eddy simulation (LES) are applied to calculate the flow and pollutant concentration fields in an urban street canyon and a cross-road respectively. It is found that the flow separations are not only related to the canyon aspect ratios, but also with the flow velocities and wall temperatures. And the turbulent dispersions are so strongly affected by the flow fields that the pollutant concentration distributions can be distinguished from the different aspect ratios, flow velocities and wall temperatures.     

Large-Eddy Simulation of Flow and Pollutant Transports in and Above Two-Dimensional Idealized Street Canyons

A large-eddy simulation (LES) model, using the one-equation subgrid-scale (SGS) parametrization, was developed to study the flow and pollutant transport in and above urban street canyons. Three identical two-dimensional (2D) street canyons of unity aspect ratio, each consisting of a ground-level area source of constant pollutant concentration, are evenly aligned in a cross-flow in the streamwise direction x. The flow falls into the skimming flow regime. A larger computational domain is adopted to accurately resolve the turbulence above roof level and its influence on the flow characteristics in the street canyons. The LES calculated statistics of wind and pollutant transports agree well with other field, laboratory and modelling results available in the literature. The maximum wind velocity standard deviations σ _i in the streamwise (σ _u ), spanwise (σ _v ) and vertical (σ _w ) directions are located near the roof-level windward corners. Moreover, a second σ _w peak is found at z ≈ 1.5h (h is the building height) over the street canyons. Normalizing σ _i by the local friction velocity u _*, it is found that σ _u /u _* ≈ 1.8, σ _v /u _* ≈ 1.3 and σ _w /u _* ≈ 1.25 exhibiting rather uniform values in the urban roughness sublayer. Quadrant analysis of the vertical momentum flux u′′w′′ shows that, while the inward and outward interactions are small, the sweeps and ejections dominate the momentum transport over the street canyons. In the x direction, the two-point correlations of velocity R _v,x and R _w,x drop to zero at a separation larger than h but R _u,x (= 0.2) persists even at a separation of half the domain size. Partitioning the convective transfer coefficient Ω _T of pollutant into its removal and re-entry components, an increasing pollutant re-entrainment from 26.3 to 43.3% in the x direction is revealed, suggesting the impact of background pollutant on the air quality in street canyons.     

Response of ocean dynamics to multiple equilibria of the Kuroshio path South of Japan

Variability of the Kuroshio path to the south of Japan plays a central role in the local climate change and exerts tremendous influences on the local atmosphere and ocean. In this study, the response of ocean dynamics, in terms of the eddy kinetic energy (EKE), potential vorticity (PV), relative vorticity, and eddy-mean flow interaction, to the Kuroshio path change is discussed. Kuroshio path south of Japan includes the near-shore non-large meander (nNLM), the off-shore non-large meander (oNLM), and the typical large meander (tLM). Analyses reveal that the distribution of EKE, PV, relative vorticity, and energy exchange between the eddy field and the mean flow respectively varies with the Kuroshio path: (1) The tLM has the maximum EKE along the path; (2) The positive and negative PV are located at the onshore and offshore side of Kuroshio axis, respevetively; (3) The distributions of anomalous relative voritcity of nNLM, oNLM, and tLM are consistent with sea surface height anomalies (SSHAs); (4) The tLM has the largest energy exchange between the eddy field and the mean flow in terms of the rate of barotropic energy conversion. On the other hand, the stability analysis of ocean currents suggests that the three Kuroshio paths south of Japan have their own intrinsic properties of the instability.     

城市采暖期气温变化特征及其均生函数模型预测试验

用哈尔滨市1951～2003年日平均气温资料，从气候角度阐述了哈尔滨市冬季采暖开、闭炉日期的意义，分析了日平均气温稳定通过5℃初、终日和采暖期平均气温的变化特征，结果表明：日平均气温稳定大于等于5℃终、初日分别与采暖期平均气温有显著的正、负相关关系；随着采暖期平均气温逐渐升高，日平均气温稳定大于等于5℃终日逐渐拖后，初日逐渐提前；采暖期平均气温和日平均气温稳定大于等于5℃终、初日均存在突变现象。有必要改变以往的采暖模式，根据采暖期气温进行采暖能源调控。利用均生函数模型对2004～2006年日平均气温稳定大于等于5℃终、初日和采暖开、闭炉日期进行了预测试验。     

气候变暖对呼和浩特地区采暖期能源消耗的影响

利用呼和浩特市1962—2007年逐日气温以及采暖期供热部门提供的相关参数,运用数理统计等分析方法,参照采暖供热等相关规范,综合分析了呼和浩特市采暖变化特征以及气候变暖对采暖能耗的影响。结果表明:随着气候变暖,呼和浩特市采暖期比实际采暖期缩短30d,尤其是在1988年气温发生突变之后,采暖期缩短趋势更加明显。采暖期能耗的高低与采暖度日和采暖期长度关系极为密切。近46年呼和浩特市采暖度日与采暖期长度均呈现显著下降趋势,说明呼和浩特市冬季寒冷程度减弱,寒冷期变短,如果采取措施可以有效降低采暖能耗。呼和浩特市采暖需求偏多年份88%以上出现在20世纪60—70年代,而约有85%的偏少年份出现在20世纪90年代至21世纪初期。