Simulation of pollutant dispersion in urban street canyons using hybrid rans-les method with two-phase model

Abstract

In this study, to simulate the pollution treatment as a separated phase a 3D incompressible turbulence model under isothermal conditions was considered. The hybrid RANS-LES method with a sub-grid scale(SGS) technique within the framework of two-phase flow was used to study pollution distribution in urban street canyons. An area source of pollutant with a constant concentration, located in the ground of the street canyon, was used to simulate vehicular emissions. The near-wall regions were simulated using the RANS(k-ε) turbulence model and the rest of the domain was simulated with the LES model. To measure the effect of building height on pollutant dispersion, the parameter AR(Aspect Ratio) was calculated. Also to determine the effect of street width, a new parameter SWV(Street Width Value) was introduced. Governing equations were discretized using the well-known finite volume method on a staggered grid. To increase the accuracy, the second-order Van Leer Method(VLM) was applied and the Volume of Fluid(VOF) method was employed for the description of the interfaces. The Iterative line-by-line TDMA solution procedure and the Strongly Implicit Procedure(SIP) was used for the Pressure Correction Equation. A fine comparison of the results revealed that by increasing SWV, the number of vertical vortices in the canyon streets generally decreased and the vortices grew larger. In addition, increasing AR caused a rise in the pollution volume fraction in the first canyon street. The current numerical results indicate that the AR and SWV influence the flow field and volume fraction of phases inside an isolated street canyon, significantly.