Computational Simulation of Pollution Dispersion

A special issue of Fluids (ISSN 2311-5521).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (1 November 2018) | Viewed by 9639

Special Issue Editor

Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Nevada, Las Vegas, NV 89154, USA
Interests: pollution; computational methods; numerical simulation; modeling

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Many practical problems involving pollutant dispersion involve numerical simulation to quantify and assess potential hazards to the public. Recent events involving terrorist activities, accidental releases of toxic materials, groundwater contamination, and indoor air pollution are just a few of the areas where assessing pollutant dispersion is of paramount importance. Accurate modelling of pollutant dispersion within any environmental medium requires knowledge of the source terms, the exchange coefficients, the geometrical domain of interest, advection, and chemical reaction rates if warranted. Many early models exist that were based on simplified analytical approaches, which have proven to still be proficient within an order of magnitude of actual measurements (when available). More recent numerical models, along with the increased power of computing, have led to sophisticated approaches that contain a great deal more physics, and provide quite accurate solutions. While experimental measurements still provide the best assessments, there are just too many instances when such results are unattainable or very sparse. There is an even more continued need today to be able to provide quick and accurate estimates in assessing environmental consequences stemming from the spread of contaminants.

Prof. Darrell W. Pepper
Guest Editor

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Keywords

  • numerical simulation
  • environmental transport and dispersion
  • contaminant transport
  • species modeling
  • computational fluid dynamics
  • turbulence
  • porous media flow and transport
  • indoor air quality
  • emergency response

Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

32 pages, 10155 KiB  
Article
Modeling and Analysis of the Effects of Noise Barrier Shape and Inflow Conditions on Highway Automobiles Emission Dispersion
by Shaoguang Wang and Xiuling Wang
Fluids 2019, 4(3), 151; https://doi.org/10.3390/fluids4030151 - 08 Aug 2019
Cited by 10 | Viewed by 3582
Abstract
Recent research has suggested that noise barriers have significant impacts on near-road automobile emissions reduction. T-shaped noise barriers have better performance on reducing noise than others, however, their effects on automobile emissions reduction are not clear. In this research, commercial software ANSYS® [...] Read more.
Recent research has suggested that noise barriers have significant impacts on near-road automobile emissions reduction. T-shaped noise barriers have better performance on reducing noise than others, however, their effects on automobile emissions reduction are not clear. In this research, commercial software ANSYS®Fluent 19.2 (Ansys Inc., Canonsburg, PA, USA) was applied to simulate the noise barrier shape and different inflow wind shear condition effects on highway automobiles emission dispersion. Various Reynolds Averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) models were tested. The realizable k-ε turbulence model was selected to simulate the turbulent flow caused by fast moving vehicles on highway based on the comparison results. A non-reacting species transport model was applied to simulate emission dispersion. Results showed that the T-shaped barrier was able to help reduce highway automobiles emission concentration in downstream areas more than the rectangular barrier. An optimized range of the T-shape was proposed; under the inflow condition without wind shear, the noise barrier shape effects on automobiles emission reduction were not significant. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Computational Simulation of Pollution Dispersion)
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22 pages, 7645 KiB  
Article
Meshless Modeling of Flow Dispersion and Progressive Piping in Poroelastic Levees
by Anthony Khoury, Eduardo Divo, Alain Kassab, Sai Kakuturu and Lakshmi Reddi
Fluids 2019, 4(3), 120; https://doi.org/10.3390/fluids4030120 - 29 Jun 2019
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 2328
Abstract
Performance data on earth dams and levees continue to indicate that piping is one of the major causes of failure. Current criteria for prevention of piping in earth dams and levees have remained largely empirical. This paper aims at developing a mechanistic understanding [...] Read more.
Performance data on earth dams and levees continue to indicate that piping is one of the major causes of failure. Current criteria for prevention of piping in earth dams and levees have remained largely empirical. This paper aims at developing a mechanistic understanding of the conditions necessary to prevent piping and to enhance the likelihood of self-healing of cracks in levees subjected to hydrodynamic loading from astronomical and meteorological (including hurricane storm surge-induced) forces. Systematic experimental investigations are performed to evaluate erosion in finite-length cracks as a result of transient hydrodynamic loading. Here, a novel application of the localized collocation meshless method (LCMM) to the hydrodynamic and poroelastic problem is introduced to arrive at high-fidelity field solutions. Results from the LCMM numerical simulations are designed to be used as an input, along with the soil and erosion parameters obtained experimentally, to characterize progressive piping. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Computational Simulation of Pollution Dispersion)
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18 pages, 7682 KiB  
Article
Numerical Study of Noise Barriers’ Side Edge Effects on Pollutant Dispersion near Roadside under Various Thermal Stability Conditions
by Liyuan Gong and Xiuling Wang
Fluids 2018, 3(4), 105; https://doi.org/10.3390/fluids3040105 - 08 Dec 2018
Cited by 11 | Viewed by 3371
Abstract
Roadside noise barrier helps to reduce downwind pollutant concentrations from vehicle emission. This positive characteristic of the construction feature can be explained by its interaction with flow distribution and species dispersion. In this paper, a three-dimensional numerical model has been developed to simulate [...] Read more.
Roadside noise barrier helps to reduce downwind pollutant concentrations from vehicle emission. This positive characteristic of the construction feature can be explained by its interaction with flow distribution and species dispersion. In this paper, a three-dimensional numerical model has been developed to simulate highway pollutant dispersion—a realizable k-ε model was employed to model turbulent flow, and a non-reaction species dispersion model was applied to simulate species transport. First, numerical models were validated with experimental data, and good agreement was observed. Then, detailed simulations were conducted to study double barriers’ effects on highway pollutant dispersion under different settings: noise barriers with different heights, noise barriers with and without edge effects, and different atmospheric thermal boundary conditions. Results show that: (1) Noise barriers without edge effects cause bigger downwind velocity and turbulence intensity than noise barriers with edge effects. (2) At ground level, lower downwind pollutant concentration and higher pollutant concentration, near upwind barrier and between barriers, are observed for noise barriers without edge effect cases; higher on-road pollutant concentration can be seen near barrier side edges for cases with edge effect. (3) Downwind velocity and turbulence intensity increase as barrier height increases, which causes reduced downwind pollutant concentration. (4) With the same barrier height, under unstable atmospheric boundary condition, the lowest pollutant concentration can be found for both downwind and between barriers. Overall, these findings will provide valuable inputs to noise barrier design, so as to improve roadside neighborhood air quality. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Computational Simulation of Pollution Dispersion)
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