Dispersion of buoyant emissions from low level sources in urban areas: water channel modelling
by Sam Pournazeri; Nico Schulte; Si Tan; Marko Princevac; Akula Venkatram
International Journal of Environment and Pollution (IJEP), Vol. 52, No. 3/4, 2013

Abstract: A laboratory study was done to investigate dispersion of buoyant emissions from near surface sources in urban areas. Ground level concentrations under different surrounding building geometries were measured using a newly developed system based on laser induced fluorescence. In the presence of upstream buildings AERMOD (AMS/U.S. EPA regulatory dispersion model) is unable to explain concentrations close to the source. Plume visualisations and velocity measurements show that upstream buildings induce low velocity and a highly turbulent region near the stack, which increases the plume rise and induces rapid vertical mixing. Also, the urban canopy imposes a length scale on the horizontal turbulence, causing the plume to spread laterally with the square root of distance (∼x^1/2) rather than linearly as occurs in open terrain. A Gaussian-based dispersion model which accounts for these effects performs substantially better in predicting ground level concentrations associated with buoyant emissions from distributed power generators in urban areas.

Online publication date: Fri, 28-Feb-2014

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