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This study presents the outcome of a series of different street scale Large Eddy Simulations (LES) performed on a 3D urban array. The configuration and the setup of these simulations are built upon the results previously published by Nosek et al., 2018, BAE 138; Kluková et al., 2021, JWEIA 208. The LES simulations are focused on the turbulent flow, passive scalar transport, and dispersion within and above the previously mentioned 3D urban array which portrays a typical building setup present in many cities across Europe. This study is connected to the project named “The Role of coherent structures’ dynamics on scalar transport and dispersion in the urban canopy layer” and it is backed up by the experimental data obtained in the wind tunnel measurements.The LES computations are carried out by the open-source computational fluid dynamics (CFD) software called OpenFOAM. The simulations differ in terms of resolution and refinement of the computational grid within the street canyons of the urban array, the type of solvers used (e.g., pimpleFoam or a solver based on a projection method), and the boundary conditions imposed (periodic and turbulent inlet boundary conditions). The comparison between the LES and Detached Eddy Simulation (DES) approach is investigated and presented as well.The findings of this study are serving to a better understanding of how well the different setups and configurations of the OpenFOAM LES simulations are capable of representing the turbulent structures in the street canyons and their influence on the passive scalar dispersion. In addition, the results confirm the optimal OpenFOAM simulation setup for the investigation of these types of problems.

[EN] Ammonia emissions from naturally ventilated livestock buildings (NVLBs) pose a serious environmental problem. However, the mechanisms that control these emissions are still not fully understood. One promising method for understanding these mechanisms is physical modelling in wind tunnels. This paper reviews studies that have used this method to investigate flow or pollutant dispersion within or from NVLBs. The review indicates the importance of wind tunnels for understanding the flow and pollutant dispersion processes within and from NVLBs. However, most studies have investigated the flow, while only few studies have focused on pollutant dispersion. Furthermore, only few studies have simulated all the essential parameters of the approaching boundary layer. Therefore, this paper discusses these shortcomings and provides tips and recommendations for further research in this respect., This research was funded by the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports of the Czech Republic(grant number LTC18070) and by the institutional support RVO: 61388998. We fully acknowledge the European Cooperation in Science and Technology (COST) that supports the cooperation of COST Action LivAGE (CA16106).

A model of a cattle barn and a part-depth atmospheric boundary layer were scaled down to 1:50 to simulate the natural ventilation in a wind tunnel. We studied the impact of three opening configurations (entirely, half and quarterly open, which represented 0.7, 0.35 and 0.17 wall porosity, respectively), on the mean flow and the stability of the flow structures in the barn using time-resolved PIV technique and oscillating pattern decomposition method (OPD). While we observed the most-energy-containing structures (POD modes) in the case of the half opening, the most stable structures (OPD modes) correspond to the fully open case. We found that the stability of the structures increases with the opening width (wall porosity), and the highest frequency of these structures was 11 Hz.

The prediction of pollution within street canyons remains challenging due to the complexity of turbulent flows in urban environments. To improve our understanding of these flows and their relation to the ventilation of street-canyons, we studied pollution fluxes through all street-canyon openings and their balance with respect to urban-array complexity using large-eddy simulations (LES). We validated the LES with wind-tunnel measurements using mean velocities and concentrations and the mean total and turbulent pollution fluxes at the top and lateral openings of the street canyons with either uniform or nonuniform heights and pitched roofs. The LES confirm and extend recent findings about the importance of mean horizontal pollution fluxes for pollutant transport within a street network. The mean fluxes have at least the same dominance as the turbulent ones in case of lateral openings. In case of top openings, the mean fluxes clearly dominate if openings at the roof eaves are selected. While pollutant removal and entrainment through lateral openings are negligible in case of uniform canyons, they are notable in case of nonuniform canyons. We demonstrate that urban roof height nonuniformity does not necessarily enhance the street-canyon ventilation because it worsens (by a factor of 1.1) or improves (by a factor of 1.5) the ventilation compared with the urban uniform height.

The purpose of this paper is to elaborate the concept of territorial cohesion in the context of 2014–2020 Cohesion Policy. The main goal is to investigate how European Union (EU) Member States (MSs) are coping with territoriality in their policies and to assess whether they are only fulfilling the minimum standards of a place-based approach or whether they are moving towards a new paradigm of policy-making characterized by a more territorially sensitive approach. This paper analyses Partnership Agreements which were signed between the European Commission and EU MSs and identifies the perception of territorial cohesion in the Cohesion Policy in the programming period 2014–2020. The analysis shows that different MSs choose different ways of addressing territoriality of their policies. It is thus possible to categorize countries into several groups sharing similar features and to discuss underlying ideas and approaches, which could shed some light on the still rather fuzzy concept of territorial cohe...

Although most people live in cities, the pollutant transport in so-called street canyons is still not well understood. The main reason is the complexity of the problem, where the roof shape, roof height and position of the pollutant source within a 3D urban array may play a significant role. This paper tries to improve the understanding and investigates the pollutant transport in six different types of street canyons using large-eddy simulations (LES). All street canyons were part of four different 3D urban arrays and differed in the roof shape and height. The results demonstrate that roof shape, roof-height non-uniformity, and the source position have a crucial impact on the advective and turbulent pollutant transport between the studied canyons and urban arrays. Both the flat roofs and roof-height variability enhance the lateral transport between the street canyons and intersections irrespective of the studied cases. This is crucial for the evaluation of the street canyon pollution if one changes the position of the source within the non-uniform urban array. Although the differences in the pollutant transport between the flat and pitched roofs mitigate in the cases of the variable roof heights, they are still appreciable.

The ventilation processes in three different street canyons of variable roof geometry were investigated in a wind tunnel using a ground-level line source. All three street canyons were part of an urban-type array formed by courtyard-type buildings with pitched roofs. A constant roof height was used in the first case, while a variable roof height along the leeward or windward walls was simulated in the two other cases. All street-canyon models were exposed to a neutrally stratified flow with two approaching wind directions, perpendicular and oblique. The complexity of the flow and dispersion within the canyons of variable roof height was demonstrated for both wind directions. The relative pollutant removals and spatially-averaged concentrations within the canyons revealed that the model with constant roof height has higher re-emissions than models with variable roof heights. The nomenclature for the ventilation processes according to quadrant analysis of the pollutant flux was introduced. The venting of polluted air (positive fluctuations of both concentration and velocity) from the canyon increased when the wind direction changed from perpendicular to oblique, irrespective of the studied canyon model. Strong correlations ( $$>$$ 0.5) between coherent structures and ventilation processes were found at roof level, irrespective of the canyon model and wind direction. This supports the idea that sweep and ejection events of momentum bring clean air in and detrain the polluted air from the street canyon, respectively.

Naturally ventilated livestock buildings (NVLB) represent one of the most significant sources of ammonia emissions. However, even the dispersion of passive gas in an NVLB is still not well understood. In this paper, we present a detailed investigation of passive pollutant dispersion in a model of a cattle barn using the wind tunnel experiment method. We simulated the pollution of the barn by a ground-level planar source. We used the time-resolved particle image velocimetry (TR-PIV) and the fast flame ionisation detector (FFID) to study the flow and dispersion processes at high spatial and temporal resolution. We employed the Proper Orthogonal Decomposition (POD) and Oscillating Patterns Decomposition (OPD) methods to detect the coherent structures of the flow. The results show that the type of atmospheric boundary layer (ABL) and sidewall opening height have a significant impact on the pollutant dispersion in the barn, while the presence of animals and doors openings are insignificant under conditions of winds perpendicular to the sidewall openings. We found that the dynamic coherent structures, developed by the Kelvin-Helmholtz instability, contribute to the pollutant transport in the barn. We demonstrate that in any of the studied cases the pollutant was not well mixed within the barn and that a significant underestimation (up to by a factor 3) of the barn ventilation might be obtained using, e.g. tracer gas method.

As most of the world’s population lives in cities, it is critical to understand dispersion processes of pollutants in urban areas. This study focuses on so called air exchange rate (ACH) index, which is frequently used by numerical studies to determine ventilation of street canyons without a simulation of a pollution source. These studies applied the ACH on idealised 2D street canyons, where the ventilation acts only through the one opening roof top. There are two pertinent questions: i) is the ACH really capable to predict the ventilation of a street canyon without knowing of a pollutant source; and ii) how much the ACH differs between 2D and 3D street canyons? To answer these questions, we performed large-eddy simulations of pollution of complex 3D street canyons from ground-level line sources. We computed ACHs and spatially-average concentrations for three different street canyons and compared these quantities with those from previous studies. Results clearly demonstrate that these quantities strongly depend not only on street-canyon geometry but also on geometry of surrounding buildings. It is also shown that 2D canyon gives unrealistic result for retention of pollutant within an urban street canyon. The ACH might lead to significant underestimation of the street-canyon ventilation if a source would be outside the canyon.

This paper presents an extension of our previous wind-tunnel study (Nosek et al., 2016) in which we highlighted the need for investigation of the removal mechanisms of traffic pollution from all openings of a 3D street canyon. The extension represents the pollution flux (turbulent and advective) measurements at the lateral openings of three different 3D street canyons for the winds perpendicular and oblique to the along-canyon axis. The pollution was simulated by emitting a passive gas (ethane) from a homogeneous ground-level line source positioned along the centreline of the investigated street canyons. The street canyons were formed by courtyard-type buildings of two different regular urban-array models. The first model has a uniform building roof height, while the second model has a non-uniform roof height along each building's wall. The mean flow and concentration fields at the canyons' lateral openings confirm the findings of other studies that the buildings' roof-height variability at the intersections plays an important role in the dispersion of the traffic pollutants within the canyons. For the perpendicular wind, the non-uniform roof-height canyon appreciably removes or entrains the pollutant through its lateral openings, contrary to the uniform canyon, where the pollutant was removed primarily through the top. The analysis of the turbulent mass transport revealed that the coherent flow structures of the lateral momentum transport correlate with the ventilation processes at the lateral openings of all studied canyons. These flow structures coincide at the same areas and hence simultaneously transport the pollutant in opposite directions.

Owing to the spatial variability of an urban area, even the transport of passive scalar is complex. The examination of the pollutant transport in such turbulent flow as occur within the urban canopy requires the measurements not only the advective but also the turbulent part of this transport. However, recent measurement techniques for the turbulent transport have their limitations. In particular, these measurements are very demanding if one needs to analyze the ventilation processes of the street through the entire streetcanyon openings and which needs to be performed also in the positions where the handling with the measurement instruments might comprise a complex issue or is even impossible. Thus we present a comparison of two methods for the assessment of turbulent and advective pollution fluxes through the lateral openings of two different street canyons with respect to the wind direction and the roof-height nonuniformity to evaluate the importance of the measurement of these fluxes nearby the street-canyon walls. Both of them are based on the simultaneous point measurement of concentration and lateral velocity component and the interpolation between the last measured point and the street-canyon borders, but in the second method the measured area is extended from 77% to 84% of the total area of the lateral openings.

Wavelet analysis is applied to data from PIV measurement in order to recognize a specific structure in the flow. The PIV snaphots achieved on the model of the street canyon was used as a test case. Four flow characteristics that are at disposal from one-point simultaneous two-components measurement (e.g. from 2D LDA) were analyzed by Wavelet method: longitudinal and vertical velocity, momentum flux u’w’ and δS – the difference between momentum fluxes associated with a sweep and an ejection. Each of characteristic is useful for detection of certain type of event. We have focused on the sweep and the ejection that seem to be the most convenient for investigation of a significant inflow or an outflow from the street canyon.

Previous study concerned of qualitative modelling neutrally stratified flow over open-cut coal mine and important surrounding topography at meso-scale (1:9000) revealed an important area for quantitative modelling of atmospheric dispersion at small-scale (1:3300). The selected area includes a necessary part of the coal mine topography with respect to its future expansion and surrounding populated areas. At this small-scale simultaneous measurement of velocity components and concentrations in specified points of vertical and horizontal planes were performed by two-dimensional Laser Doppler Anemometry (LDA) and Fast-Response Flame Ionization Detector (FFID), respectively. The impact of the complex terrain on passive pollutant dispersion with respect to the prevailing wind direction was observed and the prediction of the air quality at populated areas is discussed. The measured data will be used for comparison with another model taking into account the future coal mine transformation. Thus, the impact of coal mine transformation on pollutant dispersion can be observed.

In order to estimate the ventilation of vehicle pollution within street canyons, a wind tunnel experiment and a large eddy simulation (LES) was performed. A model of an idealised urban area with apartment houses arranged to courtyards was designed according to common Central European cities. In the wind tunnel, we assembled a set-up for simultaneous measurement of vertical velocity and tracer gas concentration. Due to the vehicle traffic emissions modelling, a new line source of tracer gas was designed and built into the model. As a computational model, the LES model solving the incompressible Navier-Stokes equations was used. In this paper, we focused on the street canyon with the line source situated perpendicular to an approach flow. Vertical and longitudinal velocity components of the flow with the pollutant concentration were obtained from two horizontal grids placed in different heights above the street canyon. Vertical advective and turbulent pollution fluxes were computed from the measured data as ventilation characteristics. Wind tunnel and LES data were qualitatively compared. A domination of advective pollution transport within the street canyon was determined. However, the turbulent transport with an opposite direction to the advective played a significant role within and above the street canyon.

Conurbations all over the world have enlarged for numberless years. The accidental or intentional releases of gases become more frequent. Therefore, these crises situations have to be studied. The aim of this paper is to describe experiments examining these processes that were carried out in the laboratory of Environmental Aerodynamics of the Institute of Thermomechanics AS CR in Nový Knin. Results show huge puff variability from replica to replica.

The objective of this experimental study is to determine processes of pollution ventilation above the X-shaped street intersection in an idealised symmetric urban area for several approach flow directions. A unique experimental set-up for simultaneous measurement of the flow velocity and the tracer gas concentration in a high temporal resolution is assembled. Advective and turbulent vertical scalar fluxes are computed from the measured data in a horizontal plane above the street intersection. Vertical turbulent pollution transport was found to be a significant and positive contribution to the total vertical transport of pollutants form the intersection. Prevailing events in vertical scalar and momentum fluxes were determined using quadrant analysis.

The objective of this case study was to determine the influence of the coal mine cavity and its vicinity on the main flow field with respect to prevailing wind direction. In order to model the neutrally stratified flow over extremely huge open-cut coal mine Libous situated at north-west of Czech Republic the laminar flow analogy was applied. The model was scaled down to 1:9000 according to dimensions of wind-tunnel and selected coal mine surroundings. The measurements of longitudinal and lateral velocity components in selected vertical, resp. horizontal planes were performed by LDA. The measured data will be used for validation of CFD simulation and for selections of area of interest at bigger scales where turbulent flow modelling will be performed. The results revealed that not only of cavity shape and deepness but also the surroundings orography has influence on flow pattern, hence on ventilation, within the area of interest.

Chemical attacks (e.g. Syria 2014-15 chlorine, 2013 sarine or Iraq 2006-7 chlorine) as well as chemical plant disasters (e.g. Spain 2015 nitric oxide, ferric chloride; Texas 2014 methyl mercaptan) threaten mankind. In these crisis situations, gas clouds are released. Dispersion of gas clouds is the issue of interest investigated in this paper. The paper describes wind tunnel experiments of dispersion from ground level point gas source. The source is situated in a model of an idealised urban canopy. The short duration releases of passive contaminant ethane are created by an electromagnetic valve. The gas cloud concentrations are measured in individual places at the height of the human breathing zone within a street parallel with flow direction by Fast-response Ionisation Detector. The simulations of the gas release for each measurement position are repeated many times under the same experimental set up to obtain representative datasets. These datasets are analysed to compute puff characteristics (arrival, leaving time and duration). The results indicate that the mean value of the dimensionless arrival time can be described as a growing linear function of the dimensionless coordinate in the street parallel with flow direction where the gas source is situated. The same might be stated about the dimensionless leaving time as well as the dimensionless duration, however these fits are worse. Utilising a linear function, we might also estimate some other statistical characteristics from datasets than the datasets means (medians, trimeans). The datasets of the dimensionless arrival time, the dimensionless leaving time and the dimensionless duration can be fitted by the generalized extreme value distribution (GEV) in all sampling positions except one.

The objective of this experimental study is to determine processes of a vertical turbulent pollution transport above the X-shaped street intersection in an idealised symmetric urban area for several approach flow directions. An experimental set-up for simultaneous measurement of the flow velocity and the tracer gas concentration in a high temporal resolution is assembled. Vertical turbulent scalar fluxes are computed from the measured data in a horizontal plane above the street intersection. The quadrant analysis was applied to the vertical turbulent pollution fluxes data. Events with dominant contribution to vertical turbulent pollution flux were detected. The mean duration, repetition frequency and the duration percentage were computed for these events. A strong influence of the approach flow direction on the the type of dominant events and their characteristics was resolved.