Dispersion Of Airborne Contaminants Research Articles

Detached Eddy Simulation of Atmospheric Flow About a Surface Mounted Cube at High Reynolds Number

Modeling high Reynolds number (Re) flow is important for understanding wind loading on structures, transport and dispersion of airborne contaminants, and turbulence patterns in urban areas. This study reports a high fidelity computational fluid dynamics simulation of flow about a surface mounted cube for a Reynolds number sufficiently high to represent atmospheric flow conditions. Results from detached eddy simulations (DES) and zonal DES that compare well with field experiment data are presented. A study of reducing grid resolution indicates that further grid refinement would not make a significant difference in the flow field, adding confidence in the accuracy of the results. We additionally consider what features are captured by coarser grids. The conclusion is that these methods can produce high fidelity simulations of high Reynolds number atmospheric flow conditions with a modest grid resolution.

Numerical study on the dispersion of airborne contaminants from an isolation room in the case of door opening

A negative pressure isolation room is built to accommodate and cure patients with highly infectious diseases. An absolutely airtight space effectively prevents infectious diseases from leaking out of the isolation room. Opening the door leads to a breakdown in isolation conditions and causes the dispersion of infectious air out of the isolation room. Extensively employed to manage smoke in cases of fires at subway and highway tunnels, a concept of controlling airflow is applied to the study. This study proposes a design of ventilation system to control air flow rate for containing airborne contaminant and preventing its spread to the adjacent rooms when the door to the isolation room is opened and closed. This paper employs computational fluid dynamics (CFD) as a more effective approach to examine the concentration maps of airborne contaminants and the airflow patterns of room air and discuss the influence of temperature differences between two rooms on airborne dispersion. Results show that an air velocity above 0.2 m/s via a doorway effectively prevents the spread of airborne contaminants out of the isolation room in the state of door opening.

Evaluation of Source Model Coupled Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) Simulation of the Dispersion of Airborne Contaminants in a Work Environment

Dispersion of airborne contaminants in indoor air was evaluated employing physical measurement, empirical models, and computer simulation methods. Field data collected from a tray of evaporating solvent in the laboratory were compared with computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations coupled with evaporation models. The results indicated that mathematical models of evaporation can be coupled with CFD simulations to produce reasonable qualitative predictions of airborne contaminant levels. The airflow pattern within a room is primarily determined by the room layout and the position of the air supply diffusers. Variations in ventilation rate did not alter the airflow pattern, thus generating a characteristic concentration profile of the airborne contaminants.

SOME OBSERVATIONS ON AIR MOVEMENTS IN CLEAN ROOMS WITH UNIDIRECTIONAL AIR FLOW

ABSTRACT To avoid particle contamination in clean process production, unidirectional air flow with HEPA-filtered air is used, either in the entire room or partly in the critical process region (clean air zones), the purpose of this presentation is to describe a number of observations in unidirectional air flow and to discuss the interaction between air movements and the dispersion of airborne contaminants, it has been shown, by using smoke photography technique, that wake regions and vortex streets can easily be formed behind the working operator and objects. If a contaminant is emitted in the region of a vortex an accumulation can occur. It is important for the user to investigate that such vortices do not occur in the clean working zone.

The transport and dispersion of airborne contaminants in boundary layers over the ocean and an isolated island cape

A series of sixteen atmospheric tracer experiments using sulfur hexafluoride (SF6), chemical smoke and meteorological balloons was conducted to explore the transport of airborne contaminants in the boundary layer over the ocean surface and in the separating boundary layer over an isolated island cape. The immediate objective of the tests was to determine the impact of local pollutant sources on a background air quality sampling program conducted in the South Pacific from elevated towers on Tutuila Island, American Samoa. In addition to satisfying this objective, the tests are of interest in that they illustrate the local behavior of pollutants in a complex natural atmospheric flow. Offshore tracer tests indicated that the crosswind dispersion of pollutants over the ocean surface can be approximately modeled using the simple Gaussian plume model. The observed crosswind dispersion of the tracer corresponded to that expected under neutrally stable atmospheric conditions, consistent with the near equilibration of the ocean surface and air temperature in the South Pacific. Local, or near-field, tests indicated that tracer released into the wake downwind of the leading edge of the cape mixed rapidly to a height of about 8 m above the surface (i.e., 30–40% of the cape height). Due to decoupling between the boundary layer over the cape and the freestream flow, however, very little of the tracer was observed above this height. This suggests that the impact of local pollutant sources (i.e., on the cape) would be minimized if the proposed sampling towers were elevated significantly above an 8 m altitude (e.g., twice that height).