https://hal-ineris.archives-ouvertes.fr/ineris-00961872/document

Modelling air quality in street canyons : a review

A scheme to represent the impact of urban buildings on airflow in mesoscale atmospheric models is presented. In the scheme, the buildings are not explicitly resolved, but their effects on the grid-averaged variables are parameterised. An urban quarter is characterised by a horizontal building size, a street canyon width and a building density as a function of height. The module computes the impact of the horizontal (roof and canyon floor) and vertical (walls) surfaces on the wind speed, temperature and turbulent kinetic energy. The computation of the shortwave and longwave radiation, needed to compute the temperature of the urban surfaces, takes into account the shadowing and radiation trapping effects induced by the urban canyons. The computation of the turbulent length scales in the TKE equation is also modified to take into account the presence of the buildings. The parameterisation is introduced into a mesoscale model and tested in a bidimensional case of a city over flat terrain. The new parameterisation is shown to be able to reproduce the most important features observed in urban areas better than the traditional approach which is based only on the modification of the roughness length, thereby retaining the Monin-Obukhov similarity theory. The new surface exchange parameterisation is furthermore shown to have a strong impact on the dispersion characteristics of air pollutants in urban areas.

/pdf/an-urban-surface-exchange-parameterisation-for-mesoscale-1raq9yv4sx.pdf

An Urban Surface Exchange Parameterisation for Mesoscale Models

▪ Abstract Increasing urbanization and concern about sustainability and quality of life issues have produced considerable interest in flow and dispersion in urban areas. We address this subject at four scales: regional, city, neighborhood, and street. The flow is one over and through a complex array of structures. Most of the local fluid mechanical processes are understood; how these combine and what is the most appropriate framework to study and quantify the result is less clear. Extensive and structured experimental databases have been compiled recently in several laboratories. A number of major field experiments in urban areas have been completed very recently and more are planned. These have aided understanding as well as model development and evaluation.

Flow and dispersion in urban areas

50 years of Computational Wind Engineering: Past, present and future

. Flux footprint models are often used for interpretation of flux tower measurements, to estimate position and size of surface source areas, and the relative contribution of passive scalar sources to measured fluxes. Accurate knowledge of footprints is of crucial importance for any upscaling exercises from single site flux measurements to local or regional scale. Hence, footprint models are ultimately also of considerable importance for improved greenhouse gas budgeting. With increasing numbers of flux towers within large monitoring networks such as FluxNet, ICOS (Integrated Carbon Observation System), NEON (National Ecological Observatory Network), or AmeriFlux, and with increasing temporal range of observations from such towers (of the order of decades) and availability of airborne flux measurements, there has been an increasing demand for reliable footprint estimation. Even though several sophisticated footprint models have been developed in recent years, most are still not suitable for application to long time series, due to their high computational demands. Existing fast footprint models, on the other hand, are based on surface layer theory and hence are of restricted validity for real-case applications. To remedy such shortcomings, we present the two-dimensional parameterisation for Flux Footprint Prediction (FFP), based on a novel scaling approach for the crosswind distribution of the flux footprint and on an improved version of the footprint parameterisation of Kljun et al. (2004b). Compared to the latter, FFP now provides not only the extent but also the width and shape of footprint estimates, and explicit consideration of the effects of the surface roughness length. The footprint parameterisation has been developed and evaluated using simulations of the backward Lagrangian stochastic particle dispersion model LPDM-B (Kljun et al., 2002). Like LPDM-B, the parameterisation is valid for a broad range of boundary layer conditions and measurement heights over the entire planetary boundary layer. Thus, it can provide footprint estimates for a wide range of real-case applications. The new footprint parameterisation requires input that can be easily determined from, for example, flux tower measurements or airborne flux data. FFP can be applied to data of long-term monitoring programmes as well as be used for quick footprint estimates in the field, or for designing new sites.

/pdf/a-simple-two-dimensional-parameterisation-for-flux-footprint-50uzxh2xcz.pdf

A simple two-dimensional parameterisation for Flux Footprint Prediction (FFP)

In this study, a detailed model of an urban landscape has been re-constructed inthe wind tunnel and the flow structure inside and above the urban canopy has beeninvestigated. Vertical profiles of all three velocity components have been measuredwith a Laser-Doppler velocimeter, and an extensive analysis of the measured meanflow and turbulence profiles carried out. With respect to the flow structure inside thecanopy, two types of velocity profiles can be distinguished. Within street canyons,the mean wind velocities are almost zero or negative below roof level, while closeto intersections or open squares, significantly higher mean velocities are observed.In the latter case, the turbulent velocities inside the canopy also tend to be higherthan at street-canyon locations. For both types, turbulence kinetic energy and shearstress profiles show pronounced maxima in the flow region immediately above rooflevel.

/pdf/mean-flow-and-turbulence-characteristics-in-an-urban-47qzxnwdoe.pdf

Mean Flow and Turbulence Characteristics in an Urban Roughness Sublayer

Wind-tunnel study of concentration fields in street canyons

http://weather.ou.edu/~fedorovi/pdf/EF%20Papers%20in%20pdf/Journal%20articles/JWEAIA%202001%20Kastner-Klein%20et%20al.pdf

A wind tunnel study of organised and turbulent air motions in urban street canyons

The paper presents an overview of the influence of street architecture on the wind and turbulence patterns in street canyons and discusses the effects on local air quality. The findings of recent experimental and numerical studies are summarized and wind-tunnel data sets are presented that illustrate the flow-field variability. It is shown that small-scale features of the street architecture play an important role. The formation of a vortex inside the street canyon is affected by the roof configuration. In shorter street canyons, the flow component along the street becomes important for pollutant transport. These results are of importance for urban air quality modeling in particular when dealing with pollution problems caused by road traffic. Furthermore, the findings should be taken into account in fast response models that are used to assess critical areas in the case of accidental or non-accidental releases of hazardous material in urban areas.

The influence of street architecture on flow and dispersion in street canyons

The paper addresses the problem of the parameterisation of traffic induced turbulent motion in urban dispersion models. Results from a variety of full-scale and wind-tunnel studies are analysed and interpreted within a modelling framework based on scaling considerations. The combined effects of traffic and wind induced dispersive motions are quantified for different traffic situations (variable traffic densities, vehicle velocities and vehicle types) and incorporated into the developed parameterisations. A new dispersive velocity scale is formulated and recommendations regarding its application in urban dispersion models are given. The necessity of accounting for traffic induced air motions in predictions of street-canyon pollution levels is demonstrated. Further research is needed to verify the empirical constants in the proposed parameterisations and to generalize the developed approach for a broader range of urban building configurations, meteorological conditions, and traffic situations.

The Modelling of Turbulence from Traffic in Urban Dispersion Models — Part II: Evaluation Against Laboratory and Full-Scale Concentration Measurements in Street Canyons

Petra Kastner-Klein

Papers

Mean Flow and Turbulence Characteristics in an Urban Roughness Sublayer

Wind-tunnel study of concentration fields in street canyons

A wind tunnel study of organised and turbulent air motions in urban street canyons

The influence of street architecture on flow and dispersion in street canyons

The Modelling of Turbulence from Traffic in Urban Dispersion Models — Part II: Evaluation Against Laboratory and Full-Scale Concentration Measurements in Street Canyons