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In this study, the pollutant dispersion within street canyons is studied by experiments conducted in an environmental wind tunnel. The vehicular exhaust emissions are modeled using a line source. The pollutant (smoke) concentrations inside the canyons are measured based on a light scattering technique. The pollutant concentrations within the four different street canyons containing the galleries and the three-level flat-roofs under both the isolated and urban environments are obtained and discussed. For each of the four canyon configurations investigated, it is found that there is an obvious discrepancy between the pollutant dispersion patterns under the isolated environment and the urban environment. The three-level flat roof is found to significantly influence the pollutant distribution pattern in a street canyon. In order to clarify the impacts of the wedge-shaped roofs on the pollutant dispersion inside an urban street canyon of an aspect ratio of 1.0, the pollutant distributions inside urban street canyons of three different wedge-shaped roof combinations are measured and analyzed. It is revealed that the pollutant distribution pattern inside the urban street canyon of an aspect ratio of 1.0 is influenced greatly by the wedge-shaped roof, especially, when an upward wedge-shaped roof is placed on the upstream building of the canyon. Images from this study may be utilized for a rough evaluation of the computational fluid dynamics (CFD) models and for helping architects and urban planners to select the canyon configurations with a minimum negative impact on the local air quality.

The dispersion of particles emitted from the surface of a circular cylinder placed in a gas flow at the Reynolds number of 200 000 is numerically investigated using the discrete vortex method coupled with a Lagrangian approach for solid particle tracking. The wake vortex patterns, the temporal-spatial distributions and trajectories as well as the dispersion functions for particles with various Stokes numbers (St) ranging from 0.001 to 1.0 are obtained. The numerical results reveal that: (1) Solid particles on the cylinder surface are picked up and then transported away from the cylinder by the wake vortex flow. (2) Solid particles emitted from the cylinder surface always follow the vortices in the cylinder wake, and the response of particles to wake vortices is directly related to their Stokes numbers (particles with St = 0.001, 0.0038, 0.01 can distribute both in the vortex core and around the vortex periphery, whereas those with St = 0.1, 1.0 can not enter the vortex core and congregate mainly around the vortex periphery). (3) The particles move in rolling state in the wake region, and the dispersion intensity of particles in the lateral direction decreases remarkably as the Stokes number of particles is increased from 0.001 to 1.0.

An unsteady three-dimensional analysis of the ventilation performance is carried out for different ventilation strategies to find out a ventilation method with a high performance in a subway tunnel. The natural ventilation performance associated with a train-induced air flow in a subway tunnel is examined. The dynamic layering method is used to consider the moving boundary of a train in the current CFD method. The geometries of the modeled tunnel and the subway train are partially based on those of the Seoul subway. The effects of the structure of the ventilation duct and the geometry of the partitions on the ventilation performance are evaluated. The results show that the combined ventilation ducts (to be designed), and the partitioning blocks installed along the middle of tunnel (already in existences) are helpful for air exchange. This study can provide some guidance for the design of ventilation ducts in a subway system.

The objective of this study is to investigate numerically the characteristics of train-induced unsteady airflow in a subway tunnel with natural ventilation ducts. A three-dimensional numerical model using the dynamic layering method for the moving boundary of a train is first developed, and then it is validated against the model tunnel experimental data. With the tunnel and subway train geometries in the numerical model exactly the same as those in the model tunnel experimental test, but with the ventilation ducts being connected to the tunnel ceiling and a barrier placed at the tunnel outlet, the three-dimensional train-induced unsteady tunnel flows are numerically simulated. The computed distributions of the pressure and the air velocity in the tunnel as well as the time series of the mass flow rate at the ventilation ducts reveal the impact of the train motion on the exhaust and suction of the air through ventilation ducts and the effects of a barrier placed at the tunnel outlet on the duct ventilation performance. As the train approaches a ventilation duct, the air is pushed out of the tunnel through the duct. As the train passes the ventilation duct, the exhaust flow in the duct is changed rapidly to the suction flow. After the train passes the duct, the suction mass flow rate at the duct decreases with time since the air pressure at the opening of the duct is gradually recovered with time. A drastic change in the mass flow rate at a ventilation duct while a train passes the corresponding ventilation duct, causes a change in the exhaust mass flow rate at other ventilation ducts. Also, when a barrier is placed at the tunnel outlet, the air volume discharge rate at each ventilation duct is greatly increased, i.e., the barrier placed at the tunnel outlet can improve remarkably the ventilation performance through each duct.

Based on the CFD technique, fifteen cases were evaluated for the airflows and pollutant dispersions inside urban street canyons formed by slanted roof buildings. The simulated wind fields and concentration contours show that W/H, W/h and h/H (where W is the street width, and H and h are the heights of buildings at the leeward and windward sides of the street, respectively) are the crucial factors in determining the vortex structure and pollutant distribution within a canyon. It is concluded that (1) in a symmetrical canyon, at W/H =0.5 two vortices (an upper clockwise vortex between the slanted roofs and a lower counter-clockwise one) are developed and pollutants accumulate on the windward side of the street, whereas at W/H=2.0 only one clockwise vortex is generated and thus pollution piles up on the leeward side, (2) in a step-up canyon with W/H =0.5 to 2.0 (at h/H =1.5 to 2.0) and a step-down canyon with W/h=1.0 (at h/H =0.5 to 0.667), the pollution level close to the lower building is higher than that close to the taller building since a clockwise vortex is generated in the step-up canyon and a counter-clockwise one in the step-down canyon, (3) in a narrow step-down canyon with W/h=0.5 (at h/H =0.667) very poor ventilation properties is detected, and inside a wider step-down canyon with W/h=2.0 the vortex structure and consequently pollutant distribution varies greatly with h/H.