• Atmosphere
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• v.24 no.3
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• pp.331-341
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• 2014

In this study, the effects of building-roof cooling on scalar dispersion in three-dimensional street canyons are investigated using a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model. For this, surface temperature of building roof is systematically changed and non-reactive pollutants are released from street bottom in urban street canyons with the aspect ratio of 1. The characteristics of flow, air temperature, and non-reactive pollutant dispersion in the control experiment are analyzed first. Then, the effects of building-roof cooling are investigated by comparing the results with those in the control experiment. In the control experiment, a portal vortex which is a secondary flow induced by ambient air flow is formed in each street canyon. Averaged air temperature is higher inside the street canyon than in both sides of the street canyon, because warmer air is coming into the street canyon from the roof level. However, air temperature near the street bottom is lower inside the street canyon due to the inflow of cooler air from both sides of the street canyon. As building-roof temperature decreases, wind speed at the roof level increases and portal vortex becomes intensified (that is, downdraft, reverse flow, and updraft becomes stronger). Building-roof cooling contributes to the reduction of average concentration of the non-reactive pollutants and average air temperature in the street canyon. The results imply that building-roof cooling has positive effects on improvement of thermal environment and air quality in urban areas.

• Journal of Korean Society of Environmental Engineers
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• v.27 no.8
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• pp.852-858
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• 2005

Modeling techniques for air quality are useful tools in air quality management. Especially, the air quality in urban area is significantly influenced by local surroundings such as buildings and traffic. When considering the air quality in a street canyon, which is usually filmed by a series of consecutive buildings and a street, currently available air dispersion model have a number of limitations to predict the air quality properly. In this study, it is aimed to propose an empirical model for the air quality in urban street canyons. A series of wind tunnel tests, followed by statistical analysis, were conducted. In conclusion, it is found that a wide street canyon and a perpendicular external wind to the street canyon are beneficial to achieve an enhanced air quality in street canyon environment. The model prediction using the proposed model also shows reliable correlations to the wind tunnel test results.

• Atmosphere
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• v.25 no.4
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• pp.659-667
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• 2015

In this study, sensitivity of inflow wind speed and turbulent Schmidt number to pollutant dispersion in an urban street canyon is investigated, by comparing CFD-simulated results to wind-tunnel results. For this, we changed systematically inflow wind speed at the street-canyon height ($1.5{\sim}10.0m\;s^{-1}$ with the increment of $0.5m\;s^{-1}$) and turbulent Schmidt number (0.2~1.3 with interval of 0.1). Also, we performed numerical experiments under the conditions that turbulent Schmidt numbers selected with the magnitude of mean kinetic energy at each grid point were assigned in the street canyon. With the increase of the inflow wind speed, the model underestimated (overestimated) pollutant concentration in the upwind (downwind) side of the street canyon because of the increase of pollutant advection. This implies that, for more realistic reproduction of pollutant dispersion in urban street canyons, large (small) turbulent Schmidt number should be assigned for week (strong) inflow condition. In the cases of selectively assigned turbulent Schmidt number, mean bias remarkably decreased (maximum 60%) compared to the cases of constant turbulent Schmidt number assigned. At week (strong) inflow wind speed, root mean square error decreases as the area where turbulent Schmidt number is selectively assigned becomes large (small).

• Journal of Korean Society for Atmospheric Environment
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• v.15 no.3
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• pp.281-289
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• 1999

A new E-$\varepsilon$ turbulence numerical model is proposed for analysing the turbulent air flow field within are urban street canyon. In this model the equations of eddy viscosity and energy dissipation ae reformed by considering the Kolmogorov time scale and streamline curvature effect. Application results of the new E-$\varepsilon$ model have been compared with those of standard E-$\varepsilon$ model and Yang and Shih's one, which are commonly used ones in engineering fields, and with field experiment results of DePaul and Sheih. The new model appears to be generally superior to other both models in the prediction of an air flow field within street canyon.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Environmental Restoration Technology
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.9-18
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• 2012

The street canyon forms the geometric unit of the built environment. The geometry makes up urban canyons and it influences the urban climate. In order to investigate the wind characteristics of urban street canyon at Dogok-dong, Gangnam-gu in Seoul, the wind direction and wind speed data were observed and analyzed by using 2-D ultra sonic and propeller wind monitor from May 5, 2010 to May 4, 2011. The results show that the prevailing wind direction was west at Station A(Military Mutual Aid Association Building), southwest at Station B(Sookmyung Girls' High School) and the wind speed of Station B was higher than Station A. There were diurnal differences about prevailing wind direction between two stations : it was westerly wind at Station A for a whole day, but at Station B only from 22 : 00 to 04 : 00. However, Station B is different from Station A at other time. At Station B, it was easterly wind from 04 : 00 to 12 : 00, southwesterly wind from 12 : 00 to 22 : 00. In terms of seasonal(except winter) frequency, the spring shows the highest frequency and fall was the next.

• Atmosphere
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• v.25 no.4
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• pp.685-692
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• 2015

In this study, the effects of trees on flow and scalar dispersion in an urban street canyon were investigated using a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model. For this, we implemented the drag terms of trees to the CFD model, and compared the CFD-simulated results to the wind-tunnel results. For comparison, we considered the same building configuration as the wind-tunnel experiment. The trees were located at the center of street canyon with the aspect ratio (defined as the ratio of the street width to the building height) of 1. First, the flow characteristics were analyzed in the tree-free and high-density tree cases and the results showed that the CFD model reproduced well the flow pattern of the wind-tunnel experiment and reflected the drag effect of trees in the street canyon. Then, the dispersion characteristics of scalar pollutants were investigated for the tree-free, low-density tree and medium-density tree cases. In the tree-free case, the nondimensionalized concentration distribution simulated by the CFD model was quite similar to that in the wind-tunnel experiment in magnitude and pattern. The correlation coefficients between the measured and simulated concentrations are more than 0.9 in all the cases. As the tree density increased, nondimensionalized concentration increased (decreased) near the wall of the upwind (downwind) building, which resulted from the decrease in wind speed case by the drag effect of trees. However, the CFD model underestimated (overestimated) the concentration near the wall of upwind (downwind) building.

• Wind and Structures
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• v.23 no.6
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• pp.505-521
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• 2016

The objective of this study is to investigate numerically the effect of building roof shaps on wind flow and pollutant dispersion in a street canyon with one row of trees of pore volume, $P_{vol}=96%$. A three-dimensional computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model is used to evaluate air flow and pollutant dispersion within an urban street canyon using Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) equations and the Explicit Algebraic Reynolds Stress Models (EARSM) based on k-${\varepsilon}$ turbulence model to close the equation system. The numerical model is performed with ANSYS-CFX code. Vehicle emissions were simulated as double line sources along the street. The numerical model was validated by the wind tunnel experiment results. Having established this, the wind flow and pollutant dispersion in urban street canyons (with six roof shapes buildings) are simulated. The numerical simulation results agree reasonably with the wind tunnel data. The results obtained in this work, indicate that the flow in 3D domain is more complicated; this complexity is increased with the presence of trees and variability of the roof shapes. The results also indicated that the largest pollutant concentration level for two walls (leeward and windward wall) is observed with the upwind wedge-shaped roof. But the smallest pollutant concentration level is observed with the dome roof-shaped.

• Proceedings of the Korea Air Pollution Research Association Conference
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• 1999.04a
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• pp.257-258
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• 1999

• Proceedings of the Korea Air Pollution Research Association Conference
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• 2006.10a
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• pp.97-98
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• 2006

• Journal of the Korean Society of Industry Convergence
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• v.4 no.3
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• pp.319-327
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• 2001

The objective of this study is to clarify the effect of thermal radiation environments on human thermal comfort, depending on different canyon types and surface materials on the human thermal comfort in a housing complex in Pohang city, Korea. For this purpose, the operative temperature and new effective temperature were calculated based on the modified mean radiant temperature of canyon models variated by the existence of direct radiation existence, surface materials, and the width and length of the street spaces in a housing complex. These indices for the canyon have been calculated from the meteorological data of Pohang city, which include air temperature, relative humidity, air velocity, global solar radiation and cloud. And the monthly averages of these climate factors measured at noon have been used. The results are as follows: (1) It is revealed that the short-wave radiosity reached the human body is affected by direct solar radiation and surface materials, and the long-wave radiosity by canyon types. (2) The existence of direct solar radiation, the kinds of surface materials and canyon types affect operative temperature($OT_n$) and new effective temperature($ET^*{_n}$). (3) The analysis of the human heat balance in the canyon indicates that the influence of radiation on human body is marc likely to be affected by the existence of direct solar radiation on human model.