Modelling Pollutant Dispersion in a Street Network

This study constitutes a further step in the analysis of the performances of a street network model to simulate atmospheric pollutant dispersion in urban areas. The model, named SIRANE, is based on the decomposition of the urban atmosphere into two sub-domains: the urban boundary layer, whose dynamics is assumed to be well established, and the urban canopy, represented as a series of interconnected boxes. Parametric laws govern the mass exchanges between the boxes under the assumption that the pollutant dispersion within the canopy can be fully simulated by modelling three main bulk transfer phenomena: channelling along street axes, transfers at street intersections, and vertical exchange between street canyons and the overlying atmosphere. Here, we aim to evaluate the reliability of the parametrizations adopted to simulate these phenomena, by focusing on their possible dependence on the external wind direction. To this end, we test the model against concentration measurements within an idealized urban district whose geometrical layout closely matches the street network represented in SIRANE. The analysis is performed for an urban array with a fixed geometry and a varying wind incidence angle. The results show that the model provides generally good results with the reference parametrizations adopted in SIRANE and that its performances are quite robust for a wide range of the model parameters. This proves the reliability of the street network approach in simulating pollutant dispersion in densely built city districts. The results also show that the model performances may be improved by considering a dependence of the wind fluctuations at street intersections and of the vertical exchange velocity on the direction of the incident wind. This opens the way for further investigations to clarify the dependence of these parameters on wind direction and street aspect ratios.     

Three-Dimensional Mapping of Air Flow at an Urban Canyon Intersection

In this experimental work both qualitative (flow visualisation) and quantitative (laser Doppler anemometry) methods were applied in a wind tunnel in order to describe the complex three-dimensional flow field in a real environment (a street canyon intersection). The main aim was an examination of the mean flow, turbulence and flow pathlines characterising a complex three-dimensional urban location. The experiments highlighted the complexity of the observed flows, particularly in the upwind region of the intersection. In this complex and realistic situation some details of the upwind flow, such as the presence of two tall towers, play an important role in defining the flow field within the intersection, particularly at roof level. This effect is likely to have a strong influence on the mass exchange mechanism between the canopy flow and the air aloft, and therefore the distribution of pollutants. This strong interaction between the flows inside and outside the urban canopy is currently neglected in most state-of-the-art local scale dispersion models.     

Experimental Study of Pollutant Dispersion Within a Network of Streets

We investigate the dispersion of a passive scalar within an idealised urban district made up of a building-like obstacle array. We focus on a street network in which the lateral dimension of the buildings exceeds the street width, a geometry representative of many European cities. To investigate the effect of different geometries and wind directions upon the pollutant dispersion process, we have performed a series of wind-tunnel experiments. Concentration measurements of a passive tracer have enabled us to infer the main features characterising its dispersion within the street network. We describe this by focusing on the roles of different transfer processes. These are the channelling of the tracer along the street axes, the mixing at street intersections, and the mass exchange between the streets and the overlying atmospheric flow. Our experiments provide evidence of the dependence of these processes on the geometrical properties of the array and the direction of the overlying atmospheric flow.     

Modelling Street-Scale Flow and Dispersion in Realistic Winds—Towards Coupling with Mesoscale Meteorological Models

Further to our previous work—simulations of flow and dispersion in an oblique wind over the DAPPLE site (Xie and Castro, Atmos Environ 43:2174–2185, 2009)—large-eddy simulations of flows and dispersion over the same site in a wind perpendicular to Marylebone Road and the windward surfaces of most of the buildings were performed. The DAPPLE site is located at the intersection of Marylebone Road and Gloucester Place in central London. In order to investigate the effects of wind direction on flows and dispersion, the velocity and scalar fields in the perpendicular wind were compared with those in the oblique wind. Furthermore, realistic wind conditions measured on the BT Tower at 190 m above street level were processed and used to drive the numerical simulations of flows and dispersion at the DAPPLE site. This leads to significant predictive improvements of the dispersion compared with field measurements, which provides validation and confidence for coupling mesoscale meteorological models, e.g. the UK Met Office’s Unified Model and the NCAR’s Weather Research & Forecasting Model, with the street-scale large-eddy simulation of urban environments.     

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。     

Scalar Fluxes from Urban Street Canyons Part II: Model

A practical model is developed for the vertical flux of a scalar, such as heat, from an urban street canyon that accounts for variations of the flow and turbulence with canyon geometry. The model gives the magnitude and geometric dependence of the flux from each facet of the urban street canyon, and is shown to agree well with wind-tunnel measurements described in Part I. The geometric dependence of the flux from an urban street canyon is shown to be determined by two physical processes. Firstly, as the height-to-width ratio of the street canyon increases, so does the roughness length and displacement height of the surface. This increase leads to a reduction in the wind speed in the inertial sublayer above the street canyons. Since the speed of the circulations in the street are proportional to this inertial sublayer wind speed, the flux then reduces with the inertial sublayer wind speed. This process is dominant at low height-to-width ratios. Secondly, the character of the circulations within the street canyon also varies as the height-to-width ratio increases. The flow in the street is partitioned into a recirculation region and a ventilated region. When the street canyon has high height-to-width ratios the recirculation region occupies the whole street canyon and the wind speeds within the street are low. This tendency decreases the flux at high height-to-width ratios. These processes tend to reduce the flux density from the individual facets of the street canyon, when compared to the flux density from a horizontal surface of the same material. But the street canyon has an increased total surface area, which means that the total flux from the street canyon is larger than from a horizontal surface. The variations in scalar flux from an urban street canyon with geometry is over a factor of two, which means that the physical mechanisms responsible should be incorporated into energy balance models for urban areas.     

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.     

Joint PDF Modelling of Turbulent Flow and Dispersion in an Urban Street Canyon

The joint probability density function (PDF) of turbulent velocity and concentration of a passive scalar in an urban street canyon is computed using a newly developed particle-in-cell Monte Carlo method. Compared to moment closures, the PDF methodology provides the full one-point one-time PDF of the underlying fields containing all higher moments and correlations. The small-scale mixing of the scalar released from a concentrated source at the street level is modelled by the interaction by exchange with the conditional mean (IECM) model, with a micro-mixing time scale designed for geometrically complex settings. The boundary layer along no-slip walls (building sides and tops) is fully resolved using an elliptic relaxation technique, which captures the high anisotropy and inhomogeneity of the Reynolds stress tensor in these regions. A less computationally intensive technique based on wall functions to represent the boundary layers and its effect on the solution are also explored. The calculated statistics are compared to experimental data and large-eddy simulation. The present work can be considered as the first example of computation of the full joint PDF of velocity and a transported passive scalar in an urban setting. The methodology proves successful in providing high level statistical information on the turbulence and pollutant concentration fields in complex urban scenarios.     

Coupling Mesoscale Modelling with a Simple Urban Model: The Lisbon Case Study

The ongoing trend of urbanisation worldwide is leading to a growing requirement for detailed flow and transport parameterisations to be included within numerical weather prediction (NWP) models. Such models often employ a simple roughness parameterisation for urban areas, which is not particularly accurate in predicting or assessing the flow and dispersion at street scale. Moreover, this kind of parameterisation offers too poor a representation of the mechanical and thermal forcing exerted by urban areas on the larger scale flow. At present, high computational costs and long simulation running times are among the constraints for the implementation of more detailed urban sub-models within NWP models. To overcome such limitations, a downscaling procedure from the atmospheric flow at the synoptic scale to the neighbourhood scale and below, is presented in this study. This is achieved by means of a simple urban model based on a parameterised formulation of the drag exerted by the building on the airflow. Application of the urban model for estimating spatially-averaged mean wind speed and the urban heat island over a selected neighbourhood area in Lisbon, Portugal, is presented. The results show the capability of the urban model to provide more accurate mean wind and temperature profiles. Moreover, the urban model has the advantage of being cost effective, as it requires small computational resources, and thus is suitable to be adopted in an operational context. The model is simple enough to be also used to assess how the resolving of urban surface processes may affect those at the larger scales.     

A microscale model for air pollutant dispersion simulation in urban areas: Presentation of the model and performance over a single building

A microscale air pollutant dispersion model system is developed for emergency response purposes. The model includes a diagnostic wind field model to simulate the wind field and a random-walk air pollutant dispersion model to simulate the pollutant concentration through consideration of the influence of urban buildings. Numerical experiments are designed to evaluate the model's performance, using CEDVAL(Compilation of Experimental Data for Validation of Microscale Dispersion Models) wind tunnel experiment data, including wind fields and air pollutant dispersion around a single building. The results show that the wind model can reproduce the vortexes triggered by urban buildings and the dispersion model simulates the pollutant concentration around buildings well. Typically, the simulation errors come from the determination of the key zones around a building or building cluster. This model has the potential for multiple applications; for example, the prediction of air pollutant dispersion and the evaluation of environmental impacts in emergency situations; urban planning scenarios;and the assessment of microscale air quality in urban areas.     

Numerical and experimental studies on flow and pollutant dispersion in urban street canyons

In this study numerical simulations and water tank experiments were used to investigate the flow and pollutant dispersion in an urban street canyon. Two types of canyon geometry were tested. The studies indicate that in a step-up notch canyon （higher buildings on the downstream side of the canyon）, the height and shape of the upstream lower buildings plays an important role in flow pattern and pollutant dispersion, while in a step-down notch canyon （lower buildings on the downstream side）, the downstream lower buildings have little influence. The studies also show that the substitution of tall towers for parailelepiped buildings on one side of the canyon may enhance the street ventilation and decrease the pollutant concentration emitted by motor vehicles.     

Pollutant Concentrations in Street Canyons of Different Aspect Ratio with Avenues of Trees for Various Wind Directions

This study summarizes the effects of avenues of trees in urban street canyons on traffic pollutant dispersion. We describe various wind-tunnel experiments with different tree-avenue models in combination with variations in street-canyon aspect ratio W/H (with W the street-canyon width and H the building height) and approaching wind direction. Compared to tree-free street canyons, in general, higher pollutant concentrations are found. Avenues of trees do not suppress canyon vortices, although the air ventilation in canyons is hindered significantly. For a perpendicular wind direction, increases in wall-average and wall-maximum concentrations at the leeward canyon wall and decreases in wall-average concentrations at the windward wall are found. For oblique and perpendicular wind directions, increases at both canyon walls are obtained. The strongest effects of avenues of trees on traffic pollutant dispersion are observed for oblique wind directions for which also the largest concentrations at the canyon walls are found. Thus, the prevailing assumption that attributes the most harmful dispersion conditions to a perpendicular wind direction does not hold for street canyons with avenues of trees. Furthermore, following dimensional analysis, an estimate of the normalized wall-maximum traffic pollutant concentration in street canyons with avenues of trees is derived.     

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.     

城市环境对重气扩散的影响及其验证

开发了适合城市环境下的应急重气扩散模型——SLAB_URBAN模型,该模型能够对城市环境下重气的传输扩散过程进行模拟。模型的原理基于重气扩散浅层理论,采用了新的城市边界层和扩散参数的参数化方案。该方案考虑了城市冠层内特有的风和湍流扩散的特征,能够体现城市边界层和湍流对重气扩散的影响。对美国盐湖城Urban2000的城市扩散试验进行模拟,主要验证下风方向观测弧所观测到的气体最大小时平均浓度与源释放速率的比值。结果表明,模型能够比较好地模拟出下风方向上浓度的分布特征。另外,与国外同类城市扩散模型的比较来看,SLAB_URBAN模型的模拟能力居于前列。     

Pollutant Plume Dispersion in the Atmospheric Boundary Layer over Idealized Urban Roughness

The Gaussian model of plume dispersion is commonly used for pollutant concentration estimates. However, its major parameters, dispersion coefficients, barely account for terrain configuration and surface roughness. Large-scale roughness elements (e.g. buildings in urban areas) can substantially modify the ground features together with the pollutant transport in the atmospheric boundary layer over urban roughness (also known as the urban boundary layer, UBL). This study is thus conceived to investigate how urban roughness affects the flow structure and vertical dispersion coefficient in the UBL. Large-eddy simulation (LES) is carried out to examine the plume dispersion from a ground-level pollutant (area) source over idealized street canyons for cross flows in neutral stratification. A range of building-height-to-street-width (aspect) ratios, covering the regimes of skimming flow, wake interference, and isolated roughness, is employed to control the surface roughness. Apart from the widely used aerodynamic resistance or roughness function, the friction factor is another suitable parameter that measures the drag imposed by urban roughness quantitatively. Previous results from laboratory experiments and mathematical modelling also support the aforementioned approach for both two- and three-dimensional roughness elements. Comparing the UBL plume behaviour, the LES results show that the pollutant dispersion strongly depends on the friction factor. Empirical studies reveal that the vertical dispersion coefficient increases with increasing friction factor in the skimming flow regime (lower resistance) but is more uniform in the regimes of wake interference and isolated roughness (higher resistance). Hence, it is proposed that the friction factor and flow regimes could be adopted concurrently for pollutant concentration estimate in the UBL over urban street canyons of different roughness.     

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.     

An Assessment of Turbulence Profiles in Rural and Urban Environments Using Local Measurements and Numerical Weather Prediction Results

Profiles of velocity variances based on observations in flat rural areas are well established, and are used for modelling turbulent dispersion in all types of regions including those of complex terrain and urban areas. Surface-based and balloon observations are used to assess the profiles in both rural and urban areas. It is shown that, with good meteorological inputs for the locality of friction velocity and surface sensible heat flux, the profiles are equally well suited to urban areas. The sensitivity of the profiles to the input meteorological data, in particular using numerical weather prediction (NWP) data, is discussed. This highlights the limitations of NWP data for dispersion modelling and stresses the importance of schemes for modelling urban meteorology.The British Crowns right to retain a non-exclusive royalty-free license in and to any copyright is acknowledged.     

Impacts of Realistic Urban Heating,Part I: Spatial Variability of Mean Flow,Turbulent Exchange and Pollutant Dispersion

As urbanization progresses, more realistic methods are required to analyze the urban microclimate. However, given the complexity and computational cost of numerical models, the effects of realistic representations should be evaluated to identify the level of detail required for an accurate analysis. We consider the realistic representation of surface heating in an idealized three-dimensional urban configuration, and evaluate the spatial variability of flow statistics (mean flow and turbulent fluxes) in urban streets. Large-eddy simulations coupled with an urban energy balance model are employed, and the heating distribution of urban surfaces is parametrized using sets of horizontal and vertical Richardson numbers, characterizing thermal stratification and heating orientation with respect to the wind direction. For all studied conditions, the thermal field is strongly affected by the orientation of heating with respect to the airflow. The modification of airflow by the horizontal heating is also pronounced for strongly unstable conditions. The formation of the canyon vortices is affected by the three-dimensional heating distribution in both spanwise and streamwise street canyons, such that the secondary vortex is seen adjacent to the windward wall. For the dispersion field, however, the overall heating of urban surfaces, and more importantly, the vertical temperature gradient, dominate the distribution of concentration and the removal of pollutants from the building canyon. Accordingly, the spatial variability of concentration is not significantly affected by the detailed heating distribution. The analysis is extended to assess the effects of three-dimensional surface heating on turbulent transfer. Quadrant analysis reveals that the differential heating also affects the dominance of ejection and sweep events and the efficiency of turbulent transfer (exuberance) within the street canyon and at the roof level, while the vertical variation of these parameters is less dependent on the detailed heating of urban facets.     

Impacts of Realistic Urban Heating. Part II: Air Quality and City Breathability

Urban morphology and inter-building shadowing result in a non-uniform distribution of surface heating in urban areas, which can significantly modify the urban flow and thermal field. In Part I, we found that in an idealized three-dimensional urban array, the spatial distribution of the thermal field is correlated with the orientation of surface heating with respect to the wind direction (i.e. leeward or windward heating), while the dispersion field changes more strongly with the vertical temperature gradient in the street canyon. Here, we evaluate these results more closely and translate them into metrics of “city breathability,” with large-eddy simulations coupled with an urban energy-balance model employed for this purpose. First, we quantify breathability by, (i) calculating the pollutant concentration at the pedestrian level (horizontal plane at \(z\approx 1.5\)–2 m) and averaged over the canopy, and (ii) examining the air exchange rate at the horizontal and vertical ventilating faces of the canyon, such that the in-canopy pollutant advection is distinguished from the vertical removal of pollution. Next, we quantify the change in breathability metrics as a function of previously defined buoyancy parameters, horizontal and vertical Richardson numbers (\(Ri_\text {h}\) and \(Ri_\text {v}\), respectively), which characterize realistic surface heating. We find that, unlike the analysis of airflow and thermal fields, consideration of the realistic heating distribution is not crucial in the analysis of city breathability, as the pollutant concentration is mainly correlated with the vertical temperature gradient (\(Ri_\text {v}\)) as opposed to the horizontal (\(Ri_\text {h}\)) or bulk (\(Ri_\text {b}\)) thermal forcing. Additionally, we observe that, due to the formation of the primary vortex, the air exchange rate at the roof level (the horizontal ventilating faces of the building canyon) is dominated by the mean flow. Lastly, since \(Ri_\text {h}\) and \(Ri_\text {v}\) depend on the meteorological factors (ambient air temperature, wind speed, and wind direction) as well as urban design parameters (such as surface albedo), we propose a methodology for mapping overall outdoor ventilation and city breathability using this characterization method. This methodology helps identify the effects of design on urban microclimate, and ultimately informs urban designers and architects of the impact of their design on air quality, human health, and comfort.