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DEVELOPMENT AND APPLICATIONS OF CFD IN SUPPORT OF AIR QUALITY STUDIES OF ROADWAY AND BUILDING MICROENVIRONMENTS

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http://cfpub.epa.gov/si/si_public_comments.cfm

Citation:

Huber, A H., M. Freeman, S. Rida, K. H. Kuehlert, AND I. S. Bish. DEVELOPMENT AND APPLICATIONS OF CFD IN SUPPORT OF AIR QUALITY STUDIES OF ROADWAY AND BUILDING MICROENVIRONMENTS. Presented at 94th AWMA Conference, Orlando, FL, June 24-28, 2001.

Impact/Purpose:

The research is planned to meet the following objectives:

Support is provided to HEASD Tasks by Alan Huber. (60% 9524 New Air Toxics Modeling, ; 10% 5732 PM Population Exposure Modeling; 10% 3948 Next Generation MMMP Exposure Modeling; 10% N533 PM Toxic agent exposure modeling, and 10% 3957 Integrated Human Exposure Source-to-Dose Modeling)

  • Development of data and algorithms for exposure modeling in urban areas, to be used in refined probabilistic exposure models being developed elsewhere, to allow prediction of human exposures for an urban population.

  • Characterize exposures and variability of concentrations in critical microenvironments in urban areas using targeted measurement studies and refined air quality models.

  • Identify critical human activities influencing exposures, especially identifying microenvironments that are key to exposures to urban air toxics.

  • Develop methods (measurements, dispersion modeling, receptor modeling) to distinguish exposures to "near field" sources - like indoor sources, human activities or hobbies, or nearby point or area sources - from "background" concentrations or from distant sources that can be modeled well by compartmental or air quality models.

  • Provide data and algorithms based on a scientific understanding of exposure dynamics for inclusion in NERL human exposure models and other models like OAR's TRIM..

    • Description:

    There is a need to develop modeling and data analysis tools to increase our understanding of human exposures to air pollutants beyond what can be explained by "limited" field data. Modeling simulations of complex distributions of pollutant concentrations within roadway and building microenvironments is feasible using high performance computing. Output from high performance computing can both be directly used to better understand specific exposure events and used to develop better simplified model approximations that may be generally applied. Unlike most currently used regulatory air quality models, Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) simulations are able to account rigorously for topographical details such as terrain variations and building structures in urban areas as well as local aerodynamics and turbulence. This paper discusses the development and application of CFD simulations through case studies using Fluent, Inc. Computational Fluid Dynamics software for simulating air pollutant concentrations from sources near roadways and buildings. Comparisons of CFD simulations to both wind tunnel and field measured wind and pollutant concentrations are bing used to provide evaluation/validation examples that document the reliability and accuracy of Fluent's existing CFD software. This paper presents a report on progress.

    The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency through its Office of Research and Development funded the research described here. It has been subjected to Agency review and approved for publication. Mention of trade names or commercial products does not constitute an endorsement or recommendation for use.

    Record Details:

    Record Type:DOCUMENT( PRESENTATION/ PAPER)
    Product Published Date:06/24/2001
    Record Last Revised:06/21/2006
    Record ID: 63739