Numerical simulation for contaminant dispersion near a highway
Abstract
Air pollution has been proven as a significant risk factor for multiple health conditions. A major portion of urban air pollution is attributed to vehicle emissions. In this thesis, a three dimensional (3-D) computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model has been developed to simulate highway vehicle emissions. The wind field was simulated using Reynolds-Averaged Navier Stokes (RANS) equations and Re-Normalisation Group (RNG) k-epsilon model. Lagrangian Discrete Phase Model (DPM) was utilized for the contaminant dispersion. The model was first applied with geometry without building in the computational domains and compared with data from literature. Comparisons show good agreement. Second, idealized building was built in order to present the changes on carbon monoxide (CO) concentration distribution caused by a building. Results indicate the co concentration tripled near upwind surface of building. Then, a high school which is close to an interstate highway was simulated to estimate the airflow and highway pollutants dispersion surrounding the high school buildings. Statistical methods were applied for meteorological data analysis. A numerical method was used to estimate the wind speed at study site based on the wind data recorded by meteorology stations.
Degree
M.S.E.
Advisors
Wang, Purdue University.
Subject Area
Environmental Health|Mechanical engineering|Environmental engineering
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