• Journal of Korean Society for Atmospheric Environment
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• v.23 no.2
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• pp.214-224
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• 2007

A three-dimensional computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model with the renormalization group (RNG) $k-{\varepsilon}$ turbulence model is used to examine the effects of difference in building height on flow and pollutant dispersion in asymmetric street canyons. Three numerical experiments with different street canyons formed by two isolated buildings are performed. In the experiment with equal building height, a portal vortex is formed in the street canyon and a typical recirculation zone is formed behind the downwind building. In the experiment with the downwind building being higher than the upwind building, the ambient flow comes into the street canyon at the front of the downwind building and incoming flow diverges strongly in the street canyon. Hence, pollutants released therein are strongly dispersed through the lateral sides of the street canyon. In the experiment with the upwind building being higher than the downwind building, a large recirculation zone is formed behind the upwind building, which is disturbed by the downwind building. Pollutants are weakly dispersed from the street canyon and the residue concentration ratio is largest among the three experiments. This study shows that the difference in upwind and downwind building height significantly influences flow and pollutant dispersion in and around the street canyon.

• Atmosphere
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• v.26 no.3
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• pp.423-433
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• 2016

In this study, performance of a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model is assessed from analysis on air flow pattern which is observed in the artificial street canyon. Field observations focusing on flows were conducted at an artificial street canyon in Magok region. For the observation of three-dimensional airflow structures, twelve three-dimensional wind anemometers (hereafter, CSAT3) were installed inside the street canyon. The street canyon was composed of two rectangular buildings with 35-m length, 4-m width, and 7-m height. The street width (distance between the buildings) is 7 m, making the street aspect ratio (defined by the ratio of building height to street width) of 1. For the observation of above-building wind, a CSAT3 was installed above the northwest-side building. Southwesterly, westerly and northwesterly were dominant in the street canyon during the observations. Because wind direction is parallel to the street canyon in the southwesterly case, westerly and northwesterly were selected as inflow directions in numerical simulations using a computational fluid dynamics model developed through the collaborative research project between National Institute of Meteorological Sciences and Seoul National University (CFD_NIMR_SNU). The observations showed that a well-structured vortex flow (skimming flow) and an evidence of a small eddy at the corner of the downwind building and ground appeared. The CFD_NIMR_SNU reproduced both the observed flow patterns reasonably well, although wind speeds inside the street canyon were underestimated.

• Proceedings of the Korea Air Pollution Research Association Conference
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• 2000.04a
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• pp.176-177
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• 2000

대도시의 국소지역인 도심지 도로변 양측은 빌딩에 의해 둘러싸여 있어 canyon으로 비유되어 street canyon이라고 하며 도로에 관한 선행연구는 도로변에 관한 것과 street canyon에 관한 것 그리고 두 경우를 전부 포함하는 경우로 분류할 수 있다. 도로변에 있어서 자동차 배출가스의 확산 예측에 관한 연구는 가우시안형 해석해 모형이 가장 많고 그 외 비가우시안형 해석해 모형, 반경험식 모형, 수치해 모형으로 분류되고 있다. (중략)

• Atmosphere
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• v.24 no.3
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• pp.331-341
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• 2014

In this study, the effects of building-roof cooling on scalar dispersion in three-dimensional street canyons are investigated using a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model. For this, surface temperature of building roof is systematically changed and non-reactive pollutants are released from street bottom in urban street canyons with the aspect ratio of 1. The characteristics of flow, air temperature, and non-reactive pollutant dispersion in the control experiment are analyzed first. Then, the effects of building-roof cooling are investigated by comparing the results with those in the control experiment. In the control experiment, a portal vortex which is a secondary flow induced by ambient air flow is formed in each street canyon. Averaged air temperature is higher inside the street canyon than in both sides of the street canyon, because warmer air is coming into the street canyon from the roof level. However, air temperature near the street bottom is lower inside the street canyon due to the inflow of cooler air from both sides of the street canyon. As building-roof temperature decreases, wind speed at the roof level increases and portal vortex becomes intensified (that is, downdraft, reverse flow, and updraft becomes stronger). Building-roof cooling contributes to the reduction of average concentration of the non-reactive pollutants and average air temperature in the street canyon. The results imply that building-roof cooling has positive effects on improvement of thermal environment and air quality in urban areas.

• Journal of Korean Society of Environmental Engineers
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• v.27 no.8
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• pp.852-858
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• 2005

Modeling techniques for air quality are useful tools in air quality management. Especially, the air quality in urban area is significantly influenced by local surroundings such as buildings and traffic. When considering the air quality in a street canyon, which is usually filmed by a series of consecutive buildings and a street, currently available air dispersion model have a number of limitations to predict the air quality properly. In this study, it is aimed to propose an empirical model for the air quality in urban street canyons. A series of wind tunnel tests, followed by statistical analysis, were conducted. In conclusion, it is found that a wide street canyon and a perpendicular external wind to the street canyon are beneficial to achieve an enhanced air quality in street canyon environment. The model prediction using the proposed model also shows reliable correlations to the wind tunnel test results.

• Atmosphere
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• v.25 no.4
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• pp.659-667
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• 2015

In this study, sensitivity of inflow wind speed and turbulent Schmidt number to pollutant dispersion in an urban street canyon is investigated, by comparing CFD-simulated results to wind-tunnel results. For this, we changed systematically inflow wind speed at the street-canyon height ($1.5{\sim}10.0m\;s^{-1}$ with the increment of $0.5m\;s^{-1}$) and turbulent Schmidt number (0.2~1.3 with interval of 0.1). Also, we performed numerical experiments under the conditions that turbulent Schmidt numbers selected with the magnitude of mean kinetic energy at each grid point were assigned in the street canyon. With the increase of the inflow wind speed, the model underestimated (overestimated) pollutant concentration in the upwind (downwind) side of the street canyon because of the increase of pollutant advection. This implies that, for more realistic reproduction of pollutant dispersion in urban street canyons, large (small) turbulent Schmidt number should be assigned for week (strong) inflow condition. In the cases of selectively assigned turbulent Schmidt number, mean bias remarkably decreased (maximum 60%) compared to the cases of constant turbulent Schmidt number assigned. At week (strong) inflow wind speed, root mean square error decreases as the area where turbulent Schmidt number is selectively assigned becomes large (small).

• Journal of Korean Society for Atmospheric Environment
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• v.15 no.3
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• pp.281-289
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• 1999

A new E-$\varepsilon$ turbulence numerical model is proposed for analysing the turbulent air flow field within are urban street canyon. In this model the equations of eddy viscosity and energy dissipation ae reformed by considering the Kolmogorov time scale and streamline curvature effect. Application results of the new E-$\varepsilon$ model have been compared with those of standard E-$\varepsilon$ model and Yang and Shih's one, which are commonly used ones in engineering fields, and with field experiment results of DePaul and Sheih. The new model appears to be generally superior to other both models in the prediction of an air flow field within street canyon.

• Atmosphere
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• v.25 no.4
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• pp.685-692
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• 2015

In this study, the effects of trees on flow and scalar dispersion in an urban street canyon were investigated using a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model. For this, we implemented the drag terms of trees to the CFD model, and compared the CFD-simulated results to the wind-tunnel results. For comparison, we considered the same building configuration as the wind-tunnel experiment. The trees were located at the center of street canyon with the aspect ratio (defined as the ratio of the street width to the building height) of 1. First, the flow characteristics were analyzed in the tree-free and high-density tree cases and the results showed that the CFD model reproduced well the flow pattern of the wind-tunnel experiment and reflected the drag effect of trees in the street canyon. Then, the dispersion characteristics of scalar pollutants were investigated for the tree-free, low-density tree and medium-density tree cases. In the tree-free case, the nondimensionalized concentration distribution simulated by the CFD model was quite similar to that in the wind-tunnel experiment in magnitude and pattern. The correlation coefficients between the measured and simulated concentrations are more than 0.9 in all the cases. As the tree density increased, nondimensionalized concentration increased (decreased) near the wall of the upwind (downwind) building, which resulted from the decrease in wind speed case by the drag effect of trees. However, the CFD model underestimated (overestimated) the concentration near the wall of upwind (downwind) building.

• Wind and Structures
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• v.23 no.6
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• pp.505-521
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• 2016

The objective of this study is to investigate numerically the effect of building roof shaps on wind flow and pollutant dispersion in a street canyon with one row of trees of pore volume, $P_{vol}=96%$. A three-dimensional computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model is used to evaluate air flow and pollutant dispersion within an urban street canyon using Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) equations and the Explicit Algebraic Reynolds Stress Models (EARSM) based on k-${\varepsilon}$ turbulence model to close the equation system. The numerical model is performed with ANSYS-CFX code. Vehicle emissions were simulated as double line sources along the street. The numerical model was validated by the wind tunnel experiment results. Having established this, the wind flow and pollutant dispersion in urban street canyons (with six roof shapes buildings) are simulated. The numerical simulation results agree reasonably with the wind tunnel data. The results obtained in this work, indicate that the flow in 3D domain is more complicated; this complexity is increased with the presence of trees and variability of the roof shapes. The results also indicated that the largest pollutant concentration level for two walls (leeward and windward wall) is observed with the upwind wedge-shaped roof. But the smallest pollutant concentration level is observed with the dome roof-shaped.

• Atmosphere
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• v.25 no.3
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• pp.473-482
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• 2015

In this study, street canyons with a higher downwind building (so called, step-up street canyons) are considered for understanding characteristics of flow and reactive pollutants' dispersion as a basic step to understand the characteristics in wider urban areas. This study used a CFD_NIMR_SNU coupled to a chemistry module just including simple $NO_X-O_3$ photochemical reactions. First, flow characteristics are analyzed in step-up street canyons with four aspect ratios (0.33, 0.47, 0.6, 0.73) defined as ratios of upwind building heights to downwind building height. The CFD_NIMR_SNU reproduced very well the main features (that is, vortices in the street canyons) which appeared in the wind-tunnel experiment. Wind speed within the street canyons became weak as the aspect ratio increased, because volume of flow incoming over the upwind building decreased. For each step-up street canyon, chemistry transport model was integrated up to 3600 s with the time step of 0.5 s. The distribution patterns of $NO_X$ and $O_3$ were largely dependent on the mean flow patterns, however, $NO_X$ and $O_3$ concentrations were partly affected by photochemical reactions. $O_3$ concentration near the upwind lower region of the street canyons was much lower than background concentration, because there was much reduction in $O_3$ concentration due to NO titration there. Total amount of $NO_X$ in the street canyons increased with the aspect ratio, resulting from the decrease of mean wind intensity.