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WIND TUNNEL SIMULATIONS OF POLLUTION FROM ROADWAYS
Citation:
HEIST, D., S. G. PERRY, L. BRIXEY, AND G. E. BOWKER. WIND TUNNEL SIMULATIONS OF POLLUTION FROM ROADWAYS. Presented at PHYSMOD 2007, Orleans, FRANCE, August 29 - 31, 2007.
Impact/Purpose:
The objective of this task is to develop and evaluate numerical and physical modeling tools for simulating ground-level concentrations of airborne substances in urban settings at spatial scales ranging from ~1-10 km. These tools will support client needs in the areas of air toxics and homeland security. The air toxics tools will benefit the National Air Toxics Assessment (NATA) program and human exposure modeling needs within EPA. The homeland security-related portion of this task will help in developing tools to assess the threat posed by the release of airborne agents. Both sets of tools will consider the effects induced by urban morphology on fine-scale concentration distributions.
Description:
A wind tunnel study has been conducted to examine the influence of roadway configurations and nearby structures on the flow and dispersion of traffic related pollutant concentrations within a few hundred meters of the roadway. The study focused four selected configurations (all with a model six-lane, divided highway at a 1:150 scale). They included flat terrain with no structures, flat terrain with sound barriers and/or vegetation barriers, an elevated highway, and road cuts. Experiments involved smoke visualization and tracer concentration measurements from a uniform line-type source as well as flow characterization.