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Pollutant dispersion by tall buildings: Laboratory experiments and Large-Eddy Simulation

Pollutant dispersion by tall buildings: Laboratory experiments and Large-Eddy Simulation
Pollutant dispersion by tall buildings: Laboratory experiments and Large-Eddy Simulation
Pollutant dispersion by a tall-building cluster within a low-rise neighbourhood of Beijing is investigated using both full-scale Large-Eddy Simulation and water flume experiments at 1:2400 model-to-full scale with Particle Image Velocimetry and Planar Laser-Induced Fluorescence. The Large-Eddy Simulation and flume results of this realistic test case agree remarkably well despite differences in the inflow conditions and scale. Tall buildings have strong influence on the local flow and the development of the rooftop shear layer which dominates vertical momentum and scalar fluxes. Additional measurements using tall-buildings-only models at both 1:2400 and 1:4800 scales indicates the rooftop shear layer is insensitive to the scale. The relatively thicker incoming boundary layer affects the Reynolds stresses, the relative size of the pollutant source affects the concentration statistics and the relative laser-sheet thickness affects the spatially averaged results of the measured flow field. Low-rise buildings around the tall building cluster cause minor but non-negligible offsets in the peak magnitude and vertical location, and have a similar influence on the velocity and concentration statistics as the scale choice. These observations are generally applicable to pollutant dispersion of realistic tall building clusters in cities. The consistency between simulations and water tunnel experiments indicates the suitability of both methodologies.
0723-4864
Lim, Desmond
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Hertwig, Denise
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Grylls, Tom
403ea88b-f831-448c-a383-3d38bef63af4
Gough, Hannah
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van Reeuwijk, Maarten
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Grimmond, Sue
3098dbd0-f169-4f59-a8e3-21d343548cb6
Vanderwel, Christina
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Lim, Desmond
82a7e7e8-2ade-44f8-a342-a99c2b9339c4
Hertwig, Denise
ab9e5287-12f6-40fe-a50c-fae4c368ab67
Grylls, Tom
403ea88b-f831-448c-a383-3d38bef63af4
Gough, Hannah
9d0ae1ae-35c4-4f25-90ea-222a72945e57
van Reeuwijk, Maarten
799491fa-2edc-4dca-b153-25906d7c8d80
Grimmond, Sue
3098dbd0-f169-4f59-a8e3-21d343548cb6
Vanderwel, Christina
fbc030f0-1822-4c3f-8e90-87f3cd8372bb

Lim, Desmond, Hertwig, Denise, Grylls, Tom, Gough, Hannah, van Reeuwijk, Maarten, Grimmond, Sue and Vanderwel, Christina (2022) Pollutant dispersion by tall buildings: Laboratory experiments and Large-Eddy Simulation. Experiments in Fluids, 63 (6), [92]. (doi:10.1007/s00348-022-03439-0).

Record type: Article

Abstract

Pollutant dispersion by a tall-building cluster within a low-rise neighbourhood of Beijing is investigated using both full-scale Large-Eddy Simulation and water flume experiments at 1:2400 model-to-full scale with Particle Image Velocimetry and Planar Laser-Induced Fluorescence. The Large-Eddy Simulation and flume results of this realistic test case agree remarkably well despite differences in the inflow conditions and scale. Tall buildings have strong influence on the local flow and the development of the rooftop shear layer which dominates vertical momentum and scalar fluxes. Additional measurements using tall-buildings-only models at both 1:2400 and 1:4800 scales indicates the rooftop shear layer is insensitive to the scale. The relatively thicker incoming boundary layer affects the Reynolds stresses, the relative size of the pollutant source affects the concentration statistics and the relative laser-sheet thickness affects the spatially averaged results of the measured flow field. Low-rise buildings around the tall building cluster cause minor but non-negligible offsets in the peak magnitude and vertical location, and have a similar influence on the velocity and concentration statistics as the scale choice. These observations are generally applicable to pollutant dispersion of realistic tall building clusters in cities. The consistency between simulations and water tunnel experiments indicates the suitability of both methodologies.

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Accepted/In Press date: 1 April 2022
Published date: 23 May 2022
Additional Information: Funding Information: We would like to acknowledge the contributions from Matthew Coburn and George Meachim who helped collect the data from the flume measurements at the University of Southampton, as well as Yue Yang and Xiaoxue Wang who conducted preliminary analyses of these data sets at the University of Reading. C.V. gratefully acknowledges the support from her UKRI Future Leader’s Fellowship. S.G., M.R., T.G. and D.H. also gratefully acknowledge support from the UK-China Research & Innovation Partnership Fund through the Met Office Climate Science for Service Partnership (CSSP) China as part of the Newton Fund. C.V., S.G., D.H. and H.G. are also grateful for the UK Fluids Network short research visit fund which supported this cross-university collaboration. Funding Information: We would like to acknowledge the contributions from Matthew Coburn and George Meachim who helped collect the data from the flume measurements at the University of Southampton, as well as Yue Yang and Xiaoxue Wang who conducted preliminary analyses of these data sets at the University of Reading. C.V. gratefully acknowledges the support from her UKRI Future Leader’s Fellowship. S.G., M.R., T.G. and D.H. also gratefully acknowledge support from the UK-China Research & Innovation Partnership Fund through the Met Office Climate Science for Service Partnership (CSSP) China as part of the Newton Fund. C.V., S.G., D.H. and H.G. are also grateful for the UK Fluids Network short research visit fund which supported this cross-university collaboration. Publisher Copyright: © 2022, The Author(s).

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 457532
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/457532
ISSN: 0723-4864
PURE UUID: 23a10a92-2f40-4d7a-8a5c-71f93f6218b2
ORCID for Desmond Lim: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0001-6191-6803
ORCID for Christina Vanderwel: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0002-5114-8377

Catalogue record

Date deposited: 10 Jun 2022 16:37
Last modified: 06 Jun 2024 04:17

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Contributors

Author: Desmond Lim ORCID iD
Author: Denise Hertwig
Author: Tom Grylls
Author: Hannah Gough
Author: Maarten van Reeuwijk
Author: Sue Grimmond

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