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Model evaluation of roadside barrier impact on near-road air pollution
Citation:
HAGLER, G. S., W. TANG, M. J. Freeman, D. K. HEIST, S. G. PERRY, AND A. F. VETTE. Model evaluation of roadside barrier impact on near-road air pollution. ATMOSPHERIC ENVIRONMENT. Elsevier Science Ltd, New York, NY, 45(15):2522-2530, (2011).
Impact/Purpose:
Journal article
Description:
Roadside noise barriers are common features along major highways in urban regions and are anticipated to have important effects on near-road air pollution – the occurrence of elevated air pollutant concentrations for several hundred meters downwind of a major roadway. A 3-dimensional computational fluid dynamics (CFD) 6-lane road model has been developed to simulate roadside barrier effects on near-road air quality and evaluate the influence of key variables, such as barrier height and wind direction. The CFD model matches an existing wind tunnel road model and comparison with the wind tunnel data guided the selection of the optimal turbulence model (Realizeable k-? turbulence model with a Schmidt number of 1.0). Under winds perpendicular to the road, roadside barriers are simulated to reduce the concentration of an inert gaseous tracer (?), relative to a no-barrier situation, vertically up to approximately half the barrier height and at all horizontal distances from the road. At 20 m (3.3H, where H = 6 m) from the road, barriers of heights ranging from 0.5H to 3.0H reduce the maximum concentrations by 15-61% relative to a no-barrier case, with the location of the maximum shifted to occur near the top of the barrier. The near-road reduction comes at a penalty for on-road air pollutant concentrations – on-road pollution is projected to increase by a factor of 1.1-2.3 corresponding to barriers ranging from 0.5H to 3.0H. When the noise barrier is downwind of the road, a stagnant zone is formed behind the barrier and minor road emissions (e.g., 5% of the highway emissions strength) in this zone, such as a moderately traveled service road, have a magnified effect on concentrations immediately behind the barrier. Wind direction and barrier termination also play a critical role, with a spill-over of accumulated emissions upwind of the barrier strongly increasing near-road concentrations at one end of the barrier. These results imply that roadside barriers may mitigate near-road air pollution, although local meteorology, the barrier structure, and the degree of lee-side emission sources are critical factors determining the outcome.
URLs/Downloads:
Model evaluation of roadside barrier impact on near-road air pol
Website
1093, HAGLER.PDF (PDF, NA pp, 749 KB, about PDF)