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Pollutant Concentrations in Street Canyons of Different Aspect Ratio with Avenues of Trees for Various Wind Directions

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Abstract

This study summarizes the effects of avenues of trees in urban street canyons on traffic pollutant dispersion. We describe various wind-tunnel experiments with different tree-avenue models in combination with variations in street-canyon aspect ratio W/H (with W the street-canyon width and H the building height) and approaching wind direction. Compared to tree-free street canyons, in general, higher pollutant concentrations are found. Avenues of trees do not suppress canyon vortices, although the air ventilation in canyons is hindered significantly. For a perpendicular wind direction, increases in wall-average and wall-maximum concentrations at the leeward canyon wall and decreases in wall-average concentrations at the windward wall are found. For oblique and perpendicular wind directions, increases at both canyon walls are obtained. The strongest effects of avenues of trees on traffic pollutant dispersion are observed for oblique wind directions for which also the largest concentrations at the canyon walls are found. Thus, the prevailing assumption that attributes the most harmful dispersion conditions to a perpendicular wind direction does not hold for street canyons with avenues of trees. Furthermore, following dimensional analysis, an estimate of the normalized wall-maximum traffic pollutant concentration in street canyons with avenues of trees is derived.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Building Physics and Systems, Eindhoven University of Technology, Den Dolech 2, 5612 AZ, Eindhoven, The Netherlands

    Christof Gromke

  2. WSL Institute for Snow and Avalanche Research SLF, Flueelastr. 11, 7260, Davos, Switzerland

    Christof Gromke

  3. Institute for Hydromechanics, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology KIT, Kaiserstrasse 12, 76128, Karlsruhe, Germany

    Christof Gromke & Bodo Ruck

Authors
  1. Christof Gromke
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  2. Bodo Ruck
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Correspondence to Christof Gromke.

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Gromke, C., Ruck, B. Pollutant Concentrations in Street Canyons of Different Aspect Ratio with Avenues of Trees for Various Wind Directions. Boundary-Layer Meteorol 144, 41–64 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10546-012-9703-z

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