Estimation of pollutant dispersion around a building within non-isothermal boundary-layer using detached eddy simulation

Abstract

The paper presents the numerical results of modelling pollutant transport from a low source behind a bluff-body imitating a building within a non-isothermal boundary-layer. The main goal of the study is to estimate the tracer gas dispersion in a complex turbulent separated flow behind a building in the presence of interference of the atmospheric boundary-layer and local flows. In the first part of the study we compare numerical approaches URANS and IDDES for turbulent flow prediction on a configuration for which experimental data are available. It is shown that detached eddy simulation approach predicts correctly the main separated flow features and demonstrates a reliable correlation with the experimental data on mean velocity, pollutant concentration and temperature fields. In the second part of the study, the influence of unstable thermal stratified flow on the tracer gas transport around a building is analyzed using IDDES method. The unstable thermal flow regime considered in the study affects the distribution of the pollutant concentration in the re-circulation zone behind the building. The presence of additional buoyancy effects leads to an increase in the gas concentration on the leeward wall of the body and gas transport from a ground region to a height greater than in the case with the neutral boundary-layer.