Simulation of Pollutant Transport in an Urban Area

Abstract

The present study is concerned with the feasibility of simulating the release and transport of a ``generic\u27 pollutant within an urban area. The motivation behind this effort lies in the need for accurate and timely predictions of the effects of a pollutant release in a densely populated region, in order to coordinate relief and/or evacuation efforts or design rapid-response scenarios in the event of a possible accident. In order to achieve the above goal, following geometrical, physical, and algorithmic steps have to be taken, generation of a three-dimensional grid, numerical solution of the governing fluid dynamics equations, and numerically solving the transport (reaction/advection/diffusion) equations for a generic pollutant. Some preliminary results will be presented at this time. A sample of representative results will be shown for the generation and transport of a generic pollutant ``plume\u27, using different starting wind conditions and release points. Future efforts in this endeavor will focus on obtaining reasonably accurate simulations of pollutant transport at a reasonable computational price. Specifically, ``reduced\u27 models for the geometry and/or the governing equations will be investigated

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