Influence of avenue-trees on air quality at the urban neighborhood scale. Part II: traffic pollutant concentrations at pedestrian level.

Flow and dispersion of traffic-emitted pollutants were studied in a generic urban neighborhood for various avenue-tree layouts by employing 3D steady RANS simulations with the realizable k-ε turbulence model. In comparison to the tree-free situation quantitative and qualitative changes with flow reversal in the wind field were observed. Low to moderate increases (<13.2%) in the neighborhood-averaged pollutant concentration were found at pedestrian level. An approximately 1% increase in the neighborhood-averaged concentration was obtained with each percent of the street canyon volumes being occupied by vegetation for occupation fractions between 4 and 14%. The overall pattern of concentration changes relative to the tree-free situation was similar for all avenue-tree layouts. However, pronounced locally restricted decreases or increases in concentration (-87 to +1378%) occurred. The results indicate the necessity to account for existing or planned avenue-trees in neighborhood scaled is dispersion studies. Their consideration is prerequisite for reliable urban air quality assessment.

Influence of avenue-trees on air quality at the urban neighborhood scale. Part I: quality assurance studies and turbulent Schmidt number analysis for RANS CFD simulations.

Flow and dispersion of traffic pollutants in a generic urban neighborhood with avenue-trees were investigated with Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD). In Part I of this two-part contribution, quality assessment and assurance for CFD simulations in urban and vegetation configurations were addressed,before in Part II flow and dispersion in a generic urban neighborhood with multiple layouts of avenue trees were studied. In a first step, a grid sensitivity study was performed that inferred that a cell count of 20 per building height and 12 per canyon width is sufficient for reasonable grid insensitive solutions. Next, the performance of the realizable k-ε turbulence model in simulating urban flows and of the applied vegetation model in simulating flow and turbulence in trees was validated. Finally, based on simulations of street canyons with and without avenue-trees, an appropriate turbulent Schmidt number or modeling dispersion in the urban neighborhood was determined as Sc(t) =0.5.

A vegetation modeling concept for Building and Environmental Aerodynamics wind tunnel tests and its application in pollutant dispersion studies.

A new vegetation modeling concept for Building and Environmental Aerodynamics wind tunnel investigations was developed. The modeling concept is based on fluid dynamical similarity aspects and allows the small-scale modeling of various kinds of vegetation, e.g. field crops, shrubs, hedges, single trees and forest stands. The applicability of the modeling concept was validated in wind tunnel pollutant dispersion studies. Avenue trees in urban street canyons were modeled and their implications on traffic pollutant dispersion were investigated. The dispersion experiments proved the modeling concept to be practicable for wind tunnel studies and suggested to provide reliable concentration results. Unfavorable effects of trees on pollutant dispersion and natural ventilation in street canyons were revealed. Increased traffic pollutant concentrations were found in comparison to the tree-free reference case.

Aerodynamic effects of trees on pollutant concentration in street canyons.

This paper deals with aerodynamic effects of avenue-like tree planting on flow and traffic-originated pollutant dispersion in urban street canyons by means of wind tunnel experiments and numerical simulations. Several parameters affecting pedestrian level concentration are investigated, namely plant morphology, positioning and arrangement. We extend our previous work in this novel aspect of research to new configurations which comprise tree planting of different crown porosity and stand density, planted in two rows within a canyon of street width to building height ratio W/H=2 with perpendicular approaching wind. Sulfur hexafluoride was used as tracer gas to model the traffic emissions. Complementary to wind tunnel experiments, 3D numerical simulations were performed with the Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) code FLUENT using a Reynolds Stress turbulence closure for flow and the advection-diffusion method for concentration calculations. In the presence of trees, both measurements and simulations showed considerable larger pollutant concentrations near the leeward wall and slightly lower concentrations near the windward wall in comparison with the tree-less case. Tree stand density and crown porosity were found to be of minor importance in affecting pollutant concentration. On the other hand, the analysis indicated that W/H is a more crucial parameter. The larger the value of W/H the smaller is the effect of trees on pedestrian level concentration regardless of tree morphology and arrangement. A preliminary analysis of approaching flow velocities showed that at low wind speed the effect of trees on concentrations is worst than at higher speed. The investigations carried out in this work allowed us to set up an appropriate CFD modelling methodology for the study of the aerodynamic effects of tree planting in street canyons. The results obtained can be used by city planners for the design of tree planting in the urban environment with regard to air quality issues.