Wind tunnel investigation on the retention of air pollutants in three-dimensional recirculation zones in urban areas

The article discusses an experimental investigation of turbulent dispersion processes in a typical three-dimensional urban geometry, in reduced scale, in neutrally stable conditions. Wind tunnel experiments were carried out for characterizing the flow and the dispersion of a pollutant around a scaled model (1:400) of a group of eight 10-floor buildings surrounding a square. The situation corresponded to the dispersion of fine inertialess particles released from a line source positioned upstream of the urban geometry. After the sudden interruption of the source generation, the particles persisted in the recirculation cavity between the buildings, with the concentration decaying exponentially with time. This is in accordance with previous works on the dispersion process around bluff bodies of different shapes [e.g., Humphries and Vincent, 1976. An experimental investigation of the detention of airborne smoke in the wake bubble behind a disk. Journal of Fluid Mechanics 73, 453–464; Vincent, 1977. Model experiments on the nature of air pollution transport near buildings. Atmospheric Environment 11, 765–774; Fackrell, 1984. Parameters characterizing dispersion in the near wake of buildings. Journal of Wind Engineering and Industrial Aerodynamics 16, 97–118]. The main parameter in the investigation was the characteristic time constant for the concentration decay. The measurements of the variation in the concentration of the fine particles were performed by means of a photo-detection technique based on the attenuation of light. The velocity fields were evaluated with the particle image velocimetry (PIV) technique. The dimensionless residence time H for the particles (H=τU/L, where τ is the time constant for the concentration decay, U the free-stream velocity, and L is a characteristic dimension for the urban geometry, as defined by Humphries and Vincent [1976. An experimental investigation of the detention of airborne smoke in the wake bubble behind a disk. Journal of Fluid Mechanics 73, 453–464] was determined for various locations in the scaled model, in the range of Reynolds numbers (Re) between 8000 and 64,000. H was found to be 6.5±1.0.