Three-Dimensional Numerical Simulation of Air Pollutant Dispersion in Street Canyons

The PHOENICS Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) software package has been used with a standard k- turbulence model to simulate the three-dimensional dispersion of air pollutants in an urban street canyon. In all cases, a vortex was formed within the street canyon, characterized by updrafts near the upwind buildings and down-drafts near the downwind buildings. Contours of pollutant concentrations over a transverse vertical plane at mid-canyon show pollutants circulating within the vortex, with higher concentrations at the leeward face than at the windward faces, and higher concentrations above downwind buildings than above upwind buildings. Longitudinal distributions of pollutant concentrations at leeward and windward faces are characterized by higher concentrations at mid-block and lower concentrations at the ends. These results agree qualitatively with previous wind tunnel findings such as those of Hoydysh and Dabberdt (1988) and Wedding et al. (1977). The results also suggest that the k- turbulence model is satisfactory for simulating the effect of turbulence on dispersion of pollutants in street canyons     

Analysis of the St. Petersburg Traffic Data using the OSPM Model

Since October 1998 two DOAS instruments were installed at the level of the first floor and at the top of a building located in St. Petersburg at Pestelya Street. The collected datacovers the time period of December 1998–March 2001, and include concentrations of benzene, toluene, NO and NO₂, ozone and SO₂. There is also an additional information about the traffic intensity and meteorological conditions. The results of the analysis of this data set, using the OSPM model, are presented here with the goal to understand the features of the air pollution dispersion in this street canyon and to analyse the information about the emission factors of the vehicles. In particular, the model results are used for the solution of the inverse problem of reconstructing the emission factors from measured concentrations. The results obtained indicate that most of the concentrations are well inside the Russian standards with the only exception of NO₂ (mean and 98-th percentile are equal to 57.8 and 119.2 g m^-3 for the street level). The same values for benzene are 18.5 and 62.6, respectively. Emission estimates show that there is a possibility that the NO_x and benzene basic emission factors recommended by the Russian national guidelines could result in overestimating the traffic emissions. These considerations are supplemented with the model sensitivity tests carried out in connection with the problem of predictability of NO₂ concentrations in the street canyon. Tests indicate that NO₂ concentrations are not very sensitive to NO_x emissions because of the usually low urban background ozone levels.     

CFD Prediction of Air Quality in the Area between Two City Vehicular Tunnels Considering Moving Cars

Concentration fields of different pollutants that spread outside two roadtunnels predicted with a CFD code will be presented. The solution domain represents the city area located between two tunnel outlets – tunnel Strahov and tunnel Mrazovka in Prague. The vicinity of both tunnels is a heavily built up area with tall buildings forming typical street canyons. The CFD modelling predicts the situation after the tunnel Mrazovka will be finished and traffic will increase considerably between both tunnels. Namely, an interest was given to the prediction of dispersion of emissions leaving both tunnel and the area touched by the traffic. For the CFD predictions, a method previously developed for moving vehicles was used. The method uses combination of Eulerian and Lagrangian approaches to moving objects and is capable of modeling different speeds and traffic rates of cars as well as traffic-induced turbulence. Influence of several meteorological parameters was studied, namely wind speed and direction and traffic parameters, like traffic rates and speed of cars. The method separates contributions from different sources to the total concentration field, namely from background, tunnel outlet and roadway. Results are presented in the form of horizontal and vertical concentration fields of NO_x.     

Examination of Traffic Pollution Distribution in a Street Canyon Using the Nantes'99 Experimental Data and Comparison with Model Results

During the Nantes'99 experiment, pollution concentrations, temperature, flow and turbulence conditions were measured at several locations in Rue de Strasbourg, Nantes, France. Traffic was measured by vehicle counters at different places within the street. Traffic speed was monitored as well. The measuring campaign was conducted in the period June–July 1999 but only data from a selected intensive observation period are used in this study. This period was selected to suit conditions required for study of the traffic produced turbulence and the thermal effects and is characterised by quite low wind speeds. The data are used here for examination of concentration distributions in the street. Measurements are compared to model results calculated by a simple parameterised model, the Operational Street Pollution Model (OSPM) and a 3-D CFD model MISKAM. Both models reproduce reasonably well the observed distribution of pollutants in the street. Due to predominantly low wind speed conditions, such effects as the traffic produced turbulence play a quite significant role. The model results provided by MISKAM are scaled using a velocity scale depending on the traffic produced turbulence. Application of a scaling velocity depending on wind speed only, provides unrealistic results.     

Application of Dispersion Modelling for Analysis of Particle Pollution Sources in a Street Canyon

The dominating source of particles in urban air is road traffic. In terms of number concentration, its main contribution is within the range of ultrafine particles (Dp < 100 nm). The dispersion conditions, i.e. transport and dilution, of the submicrometer particles are expected to be like for gases and therefore the particle concentrations in a street canyon can be calculated using gaseous pollutants dispersion models. Such processes, like coagulation or condensation, are less important due to the short residence time within the street canyon environment.Two extensive measuring campaigns were conducted in the street Jagtvej in Copenhagen, Denmark. The particle size distributions were measured by a Differential Mobility Analyser (DMA) coupled to a particle counter, providing high time resolution data (1/2 hourly) on a continuous basis. Measurements of NO_x, CO and meteorological parameters were also available. The measured particle number concentrations, especially below 100 nm, reveal very similar dependence on the meteorological conditions as the NO_x concentrations. This underpins the conclusion that dilution properties are similar for particles and NO_x. For particle sizes over 100 nm, somewhat different behaviour is observed. This points toward existence of additional particle sources, not related to traffic emissions within the street canyon. A significant contribution is believed here to be attributed to long-range transport. The total particle emission from traffic, including daily variation and size distribution, has been calculated using the OSPM dispersion model. Results are in accordance with a previous analysis based on statistical modelling.     

ROADWAY-2: A Model for Pollutant Dispersion near Highways

The formulations and evaluation of ROADWAY-2, a near-highway pollutant dispersion model, are described. This model incorporates vehicle wake parameterizations derived from canopy flow theory and wind tunnel measurements. The atmospheric velocity and turbulence fields are adjusted to account for velocity-deficit and turbulence production in vehicle wakes. A turbulent kinetic energy closure model of the atmospheric boundary layer is used to derive the mean velocity, temperature, and turbulence profiles from input meteorological data. ROADWAY-2 has been evaluated using SF₆ tracer data from General Motors Sulfate Dispersion Experiment. The model evaluationresults are presented and discussed.     

Physical Modelling of Urban Roughness using Arrays of Regular Roughness Elements

The aerodynamic behaviour of large urbanagglomerations must be represented in increasingly greaterdetail, as large-scale numerical weather prediction and airpollution dispersion models are refined. The present studyprovides detailed measurements of the flow field in regulararrays of obstacles to obtain representative data on meanflow and turbulence statistics in urban-type areas. Obstacle arrays consisting of simple cubes and flat plateroughness commonly used in boundary layer simulations wereplaced in a simulated atmospheric boundary layer flow in ahydraulic flume. The scale factor was about 1:200 based onthe obstacle height (50 mm). The results show noappreciable `constant stress' region in the internalboundary layer above the buildings, since in any finite-length test array the boundary layer is always developing.However, if the RMS turbulence components are scaled by thelocal values of the shear stress, then there seems to be auniversal scaling, with _u/u_* = 2.1,_v/u_* = 1.65 and _w/u_* = 1.2. This greatly simplifies the parameterization of the first orderturbulence statistics in obstacle arrays. It was alsoobserved during the experiments that, compared to results inthe cube arrays, the turbulence kinetic energy and theReynolds stresses were almost doubled in the flat plateroughness arrays.     

Tree Leaf Biomarkers for Atmospheric Nitrogen Deposition

The aim of this paper was to investigate the effects of nitrogen (N) deposition on tree N cycling and identify potential biomarkers forNdeposition. Between April and October 2002 extensive fieldwork was undertaken at Mardley Heath in Hertfordshire. This woodland, located adjacent to the A1(M) motorway, is exposed to high levels of atmospheric nitrogen oxides from the traffic. Measurements of ¹⁵N, in vivo nitrate reductase (NR) activity, tissue, xylem and surface nitrate concentrations as well as N concentration and growth were made along a 700-m transect at 90° to the motorway. The ¹⁵N data show that oxidised N from the road traffic is taken up by nearby trees and is incorporated into plant tissues. Our measurements of NR activities suggest elevated rates close to the motorway. However, xylem sap, leaf tissue and leaf surface nitrate concentrations showed no differences between the roadside location and the most distant sampling point from the motorway. Taken together the ¹⁵N and nitrate reductase data suggest uptake and assimilation of N through the foliage.We conclude that for this lowland deciduouswoodland, tissue, xylem and surface measurements of nitrate are unreliable biomarkers for N deposition whereas ¹⁵N, growth measurements and integrated seasonal NR might be useful. The results also point to the benefit of roadside tree planting to screen pollution from motor vehicles.     

A Wind Tunnel Investigation of the Influence of Solar-Induced Wall-Heating on the Flow Regime within a Simulated Urban Street Canyon

A wind tunnel study has been undertaken to assess theinfluence of solar-induced wall heating on the airflowpattern within a street canyon under low-speed windconditions. This flow is normally dominated by large-scalevortical motion, such that the wind moves downwards at thedownstream wall. In the present work the aim has been toexamine whether the buoyancy forces generated at this wallby solar-induced heating are of sufficient strength tooppose the downward inertial forces and, thereby, changethe canyon flow pattern. Such changes will also influencethe dispersion of pollutants within the street. In theexperiments the windward-facing wall of a canyon has beenuniformly heated to simulate the effect of solar radiation.Four different test cases, representing different degreesof buoyancy (defined by a test Froude number, Fr), havebeen examined using a simple, 2-D, square-section canyonmodel in a wind tunnel. For reference purposes, the neutralcase (no wall heating), has also been studied. The approachflow boundary layer conditions have been well defined, withthe wind normal to the main canyon axis, and measurementshave been taken of canyon wall and air temperatures andprofiles of mean velocities and turbulence intensities.Analysis of the results shows clear differences in the flowpatterns. As Fr decreases from the neutral case there arereductions of up to 50% in the magnitudes of the reverseflow velocities near the ground and in the upward motionnear the upstream wall. A marked transition occurs at Fr 1, where the single dominant vortex, existing at higher Fr values, weakens and moves upwards whilst a lower region of relatively stagnant flow appears. This transition hadpreviously been observed in numerical model predictions butat a Fr at least an order of magnitude higher.     

Measurement of Traffic Related Toxic Air Pollutants in an Urban Atmosphere

Nose-level measurements of air toxics were made along a busy urban street in Ottawa, Canada for 2 hr periods during morning, noon, and afternoon rush hours in the winter and summer of 2000. Measurements were also made in a commuter car and a transit bus during morning and afternoon commutes in 2000. The main objectives of the study were to establish a database, to determine temporal and seasonal variations and to determine the contribution of motor vehicle traffic to the measured toxic substance concentrations. Ottawa is an appropriate choice of location for the measurement of motor vehicle related toxic and reactive compounds, as it has virtually no industrial sources that could be contributing to the ambient loadings. Samples were collected for a total of 165 volatile organic compounds and 25 carbonyl compounds. Sampling and analytical methodologyare discussed and results are presented. Toluene, ethylene andformaldehyde were the most abundant pollutants in Ottawa during both winter and summer. Total non-methane hydrocarbon concentrationwas measured as 100 g m^-3 at nose-level measurements in Ottawa.     

The Characterisation of Settled Dust by Scanning Electron Microscopy and Energy Dispersive X-ray Analysis

Settled dust has been collected inside the main foyers ofthree University buildings in Wolverhampton City Centre,U.K. Two of the three buildings are located in a streetcanyon used almost exclusively by heavy duty dieselvehicles. The dust was collected on adhesive carbonspectro-tabs to be in a form suitable for analysis byscanning electron microscope and energy dispersive X-rayanalysis. Using these analytical techniques, individualparticle analysis was undertaken for morphology andchemistry. Seasonal variations and variations due tolocation were observed in both the morphologicalmeasurements and chemical analysis. Many of the differencesappear attributable to the influence of road traffic, inparticular, the heavy duty diesel vehicles, travellingalong the street canyon.     

Investigation of Biosurfactant Activity and Asphaltene Biodegradation by <Emphasis Type="Italic">Bacillus cereus</Emphasis>

In this research, a biosurfactant-producing bacterium with capability of asphaltene degradation was isolated from oil-contaminated soil samples, and identified as Bacillus cereus. This strain produced an effective biosurfactant in the presence of molasses and the surface tension was reduced to the level of 36.4 mN/m after 48 h under optimum conditions. The optimum values of carbon-to-nitrogen ratio (C:N), pH, and temperature for biosurfactant production were determined as 30:1, 7.3 and 29 °C, respectively, using response surface methodology. The maximum emulsification activity in the culture broth was 53 % after 48 h using kerosene at 25 °C. The goodness of fit of four growth kinetic models including Tessier, Contois, Logistic and Westerhoff was compared for the bacterial growth and molasses utilization of B. cereus in 5-L batch bioreactor during 120 h. Conducted kinetic study showed that biosurfactant production had a good fit with the Contois growth kinetic model (R² = 0.962) and the maximum specific growth rate (µ _max ), saturation constant (K _s ) and the yield of biomass per substrate (Y _x/s ) were determined to be 0.145 h^?1, 1.83 g/L and 0.428 g/g, respectively. The asphaltene biodegradation in flask was evaluated by FTIR analysis and quantified by a spectrophotometer. This bacterium was able to degrade up to 40 % of asphaltene as a sole carbon and energy source after 60 days at 28 °C. The resulting surface tension of 30.2 mN/m with the critical micelle concentration of 23.4 mg/L indicated good efficiency of the biosurfactant.     

Thermal Effects on the Airflow in a Street Canyon – Nantes'99 Experimental Results and Model Simulations

The thermal effects on the airflow within a street canyon, which are produced by the variation of direct solar heating of the street sides and ground, are examined in this article. The investigation is based on the experimental results of the Nantes'99 campaign and numerical simulations performed with the Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) code CHENSI using the standard k- model. The Nantes'99 experimental campaign was performed in a North-to-South oriented central street canyon of Nantes, France. It was observed that a thin thermal layer develops locally within a few centimetres from the heated wall. It is anticipated that, the convective flow close to the windward wall, which was visualised during the experiment, carries air masses from the street level upwards, where normally cleaner air is transported. Consequently, thermal effects may be important for the air quality in the street.Based on the temperature and wind flow measurements, the flow and temperature fields were simulated first in two dimensions with the CFD code CHENSI. It was found that CHENSI overestimates the thermal effects on the canyon airflow showing the main re-circulation simulated in the isothermal case to change into two counter-rotating vortices after the inclusion of the heating of the windward wall. A reason for this overestimation is possibly the temperature wall function implemented for such thin thermal boundary layers in conjunction with the limitations in grid resolution.     

Spatial Variability and Source-Receptor Relations at a Street Intersection

A wind tunnel study of dispersion at a simple urban intersection comprising two perpendicular streets is described. Concentration and flow field measurement were undertaken to determine the importance of the exchange of pollutants between the streets and to investigate source-receptor relationships at the intersection. The results showed that only in a symmetrical situation were exchanges negligible and that small departures from symmetry, brought about in the experiments through an off-set in the street alignment or a change of orientation relative to the wind, were sufficient to establish significant exchanges. The results also showed that significant structure appeared in the concentration fields in the streets as a result. Examples are shown where concentrations on one side of a street are entirely due to emissions from the perpendicular street, whereas on the opposite side concentrations depend on emission upwind in the same street as the receptor. The results imply that exchanges between street systems are likely to be the norm in practice and that the consequences of such exchanges are not confined to the immediate vicinity of the intersection.     

Correlating the Spatial Distribution of Atmospheric Ammonia with δ15N Values at an Ammonia Release Site

A field ammonia (NH₃) release experiment and open top chambers containing moorland monoliths continuously fumigated with NH₃ or sprayed with NH₄Cl were used to assess the potential for using ¹⁵N values in determining the area of influence around a point NH₃ emission source. ¹⁵N values are being increasingly used as environmental tracers and we tested the hypothesis that the ¹⁵N signal from an NH₃ emission source is observable in nearby vegetation. Using modified monitoring devices, atmospheric NH₃ concentrations were found to decrease with distance from source, with ¹⁵N values also reflecting this trend, producing a signal shift with changing concentration. Open top chamber studies of ¹⁵N values of Calluna vulgaris (L.) Hull indicated a correlation with deposition treatments in current year shoots. Analysis of Calluna shoots from the NH₃ release showed a similar trend of ¹⁵N enrichment. Significant linear correlations between ¹⁵N and percent N in plant material were found, both in the controlled conditions of the open top chambers and at the NH₃ release site, illustrating the possible use of this technique in N deposition biomonitoring.     

Modelling Easily Biodegradability of Materials in Liquid Medium-Relationship Between Structure and Biodegradability

In the present project, twenty materials (e.g., polyhydroxybutyrate-hydroxyvalerate, polycaprolactone, cellulose acetate, polyacticacid, polyethylene), representing varied biodegradability levels were studied. An aerobic respirometric test, based on the CEN Draft, was setup. The biodegradability of each plastic film was evaluated by measuring the percentage of carbon converted into CO₂ during 35 days. The values of the CO₂ production were plotted versus days as a cumulative function. In order to reduce its number of points, the cumulative curve was modeled using a sigmoïd function (Hill sigmoïd). This model was compared to one found in the literature. A _i ² test showed that the biodegradation curve was more accurately fitted with the model than the previous one. Three kinetic parameters were determined by this Hill model: one represents the maximal percentage of carbon converted into CO₂, the second the half-life time in days of the degrading part of the material and the third one the curve radius.In addition, the following analyses were carried out on each sample: elemental analysis, thickness, hydrophobicity and surface free energy measurements. In order to compress the information and to keep only relevant pieces, these parameters were submitted to a Principal Component Analysis. PCA found linear combinations of variables that describe major trends in the data. The two principal components which separate groups of materials were closely related to a chemical and a physical axis respectively. Materials showing a high biodegradability were related to high oxygen (and nitrogen) contents and low hydrophobicity: Material thickness did not influence the likeliness to biodegradability described by the maximum biodegradation rate. Finally, this study established the correlation between the biodegradation and the structure of biopolymers.     

Experimental Assessment of Atmospheric Ammonia Dispersion and Short Range Dry Deposition in a Maize Canopy

In order to study the effect of thevegetation structure on atmospheric ammonia(NH₃) dispersion and deposition, anexperiment was set up near Paris, in July 1997.Between 12 and 162 m downwind of a 200 m line-source releasing 600 to 1200 g NH₃hr^-1placed at the top of a maize canopy, NH₃concentration was measured, within and above thecanopy, with a set of 30 active, acid-coateddenuders over periods of 2 to 3 hr. Eight datasets were collected over a one-month period.NH₃ concentration decreased sharply withdistance to the source, from up to800 g NH₃ m^-3 at 12 m, to lessthan 10 g NH₃ m^-3 at 162 m andshowed strong vertical gradients. Within thecanopy, the concentration scaled using thefriction velocity, the canopy height, and thesource strength, exhibited a universal power lawrelationship as a function of the normaliseddownwind distance from the source. A mass balancemethod and a resistance model approach were usedas independent estimates of the cumulateddeposition at 162 m downwind from the source,which range between 1 and 29% of the emittedNH₃. Both methods agreed approximately inmagnitude. A sensitivity analysis showed that thecuticular uptake and the compensation point aremajor parameters that needs to be bettercharacterised under high NH₃ concentrationif one wants to improve NH₃ short-rangedeposition modelling.     

Modelling of Flow and Pollution Dispersion in a Two Dimensional Urban Street Canyon

The wind-driven flow patterns and the dispersion of vehicle exhaust pollutants released at street level has been simulated with the three-dimensional (3-D) dispersion model ADREA-HF (Andronopoulos et al., 1993), for idealised two-dimensional urban fetches occupied by buildings with slanted roofs. The simulation used oncoming atmospheric boundary layer characteristics corresponding to realistic above-town wind characteristics, as measured in reference wind tunnel experiments (Rafailidis, 1997). At that stage, analysis was limited to neutral stability conditions only. Firstly, the quality assurance of the numerical model was investigated in terms of the sensitivity to different grid allocations. The modelling results were corroborated by comparison with wind tunnel measurements in a similar two-dimensional domain (Pavageau et al., 1997). The numerical modelling replicated well the high degree of non-uniformity in the dispersion field in the test street, and the results agreed satisfactorily with the experimental measurements. The reasons for the differences observed have been investigated. With the model thus validated, three different exhaust release scenarios have been tested, keeping the same overall emission rate but different spatial patterns of street-release. The effect of the different street-release scenarios was found to be only marginal, with the dispersion patterns on the sidewalls affected only locally, close to the street level.     

Enhancement of biogas production potential from <Emphasis Type="Italic">Acacia</Emphasis> leaf waste using alkaline pre-treatment and co-digestion

The objective of this research was to evaluate possibility of utilizing Acacia leaves (A. mangium and A. auriculiformis), which is an agro-industrial waste from the pulp and paper industry. The effects of alkaline pre-treatment and co-digestion with Napier grass for the enhancement of biogas production from Acacia leaf waste (ALW) were investigated. Six continuous stirred tank reactors with a working volume of 5 L were carried out at the laboratory scale. The results showed that pre-treatment of Acacia leaf waste (pretreated ALW) by soaking in 3 % NaOH for 48 h increased the biogas and methane productivity to 0.200 and 0.117 m³/kgVS_added compared to 0.098 and 0.048 m³/kgVS_added of raw ALW digestion, respectively. Meanwhile, the co-digestion of Acacia leaves with different proportions of Napier grass at ratios of 1:1–1:3 in volatile solid basis also increased the production of biogas and its productivity. The maximum gas production yields of 0.424 and 0.268 m³/kgVS_added for biogas and methane were obtained at 1:3 ratio. This finding affirms the potential of ALW and its possibility to use as biogas feedstock in both single and co-substrate with Napier grass.