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Effect of triangular roof angle on dispersion of gaseous pollutants and particulate matter

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Abstract

The Euler–Lagrangian method is adopted to simulate the dispersion of gaseous pollutants and particulate matter (PM) in isolated street canyons, and the influences of the roof angle on the flow structures and distributions of gaseous pollutants and PM are analyzed in detail. Numerical simulation results indicate that gaseous pollutants and PM in the canyons present three typical single main clockwise vortex, transition vortex, and double vortex structures, which are identified at increasing roof slopes. Gaseous pollutants and PM demonstrate the lowest concentration of pollutants when a single vortex structure exists. The concentration of gaseous pollutants and PM reaches the highest value in pedestrian-level areas when the flow field is in a transitional vortex structure. Unlike gaseous pollutants, the concentration of PM does not always decrease with increasing altitude, and higher PM concentrations sometimes occur in the mid-level areas of the canyon. A small roof incline angle is generally recommended for discharging gaseous pollutants and PM.

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Data availability

The datasets used and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

Abbreviations

C α :

Pollutant concentration (kg/m3)

D α :

Pollutant molecular diffusion rate (kg/s)

d p :

Particle diameter (m)

\( \overrightarrow{F} \) :

Additional force (N)

H :

Building height (mm)

K :

Dimensionless concentration

m p :

Particle mass (kg)

\( \overline{P} \) :

Dynamic pressure (pa)

Q :

Pollutant release rate (kg/s)

Re:

Reynolds number

\( {\overline{S}}_i \) :

The source term of the momentum equation caused by particle matter

Sc t :

Turbulent Schmidt number

\( {\overline{u}}_H \) :

Inlet velocity (m/s)

\( {\overline{u}}_i \) :

Time-averaged velocity components, (m/s)

\( {u}_i^{\hbox{'}} \) :

Pulsation velocities (m/s)

\( \overline{u_i^{\hbox{'}}{u}_j^{\hbox{'}}} \) :

Reynolds stresses (N)

u p :

Particle velocity (m/s)

W :

Street canyon width (mm)

W b :

Pollution source width (mm)

β :

Triangular roof angle (°)

α :

Wind profile index

ρ :

Fluid density (kg/m3)

ν :

Air kinematic viscosity (m2/s)

∇:

Definition operator

δ ij :

Kronecker delta symbol

ν T :

Kinematic eddy (turbulent) viscosity (m2/s)

κ :

The turbulent kinetic energy (J)

ε :

Turbulence kinetic energy dissipation rate

ρ p :

Particle density (kg/m3)

τ r :

Particle relaxation time (s)

μ :

Molecular viscosity of the continuous phase

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Funding

The work was financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. U1933131 and 51906055), the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (No. PA2020GDKC0017), and the China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (No. 2018M640582)

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Automotive and Transportation Engineering, Hefei University of Technology, Hefei, 230009, Anhui, China

    ** Liu

  2. Intelligent Vehicle Labs of Anhui Province, Hefei University of Technology, No. 193, Tunxi Road, Hefei, 230009, Anhui, China

    Changfa Tao

Authors
  1. **aoxiao Zhang
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  2. Chunmei Wang
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  3. ** Liu
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  4. Taotao Zhou
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  5. Changfa Tao
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  6. Qin Shi
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Contributions

All authors contributed to the study conception and design. Programming, data collection, and analysis were performed by **aoxiao Zhang, Taotao Zhou, and Changfa Tao. The first draft of the manuscript was written by **aoxiao Zhang, and all authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Taotao Zhou or Changfa Tao.

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Zhang, X., Wang, C., Liu, X. et al. Effect of triangular roof angle on dispersion of gaseous pollutants and particulate matter. Environ Sci Pollut Res 28, 15537–15550 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-020-11512-6

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