ORIGINAL RESEARCH
An Investigation of the Correlation between
Pollutant Dispersion and Wind Environment:
Evaluation of Static Wind Speed
More details
Hide details
1
School of Architecture and Urban Planning, Chongqing University, Chongqing 400045, China
Submission date: 2020-03-24
Final revision date: 2020-10-21
Acceptance date: 2020-11-03
Online publication date: 2021-06-08
Publication date: 2021-07-29
Pol. J. Environ. Stud. 2021;30(5):4311-4323
KEYWORDS
TOPICS
ABSTRACT
The research on the correlation between pollutant dispersion and wind environment is gaining more
and more attention due to increasingly serious air pollution. However, the specific relationship between
wind environment factors and the pollutant concentration is still unclear. In this paper, a simple model
of the relationship among wind speed, pollutant concentration, and pollutant dispersion efficiency is
investigated based on computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations to redefine the static wind speed
on the aspect of pollutant dispersion. The air pollutants are supposed to be diffused effectively when
the wind speed is higher than the static wind speed. The CFD simulations are performed using the
three-dimensional steady and unsteady Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) methods. First, the
numerical methods and CFD settings are described briefly and then validated by experimental data.
Next, an idealized pollutant dispersion model is established and then the pollutant dispersion processes
are simulated and analyzed with different wind speed profiles. Finally, wind with speed less than 1.0 m/s
at pedestrian level (1.5 m above the ground) is defined as static wind according to the comparison and
analysis. It is expected that the static wind speed results can be easily used as an indicator to evaluate
air quality directly for urban design and planning.