The correct prediction of air pollutants dispersed in urban areas is of paramount importance to safety, public health and a sustainable environment. Vehicular traffic is one of the main sources of nitrogen oxides (NO x ) and particulate matter (PM), strongly related to human morbidity and mortality. In this study, the pollutant level and distribution in a section of one of the main road arteries of Antwerp (Belgium, Europe) are analyzed. The assessment is performed through computational fluid dynamics (CFD), acknowledged as a powerful tool to predict and study dispersion phenomena in complex atmospheric environments. The two main traffic lanes are modeled as emitting sources and the surrounding area is explicitly depicted. A Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) approach specific for Atmospheric Boundary Layer (ABL) simulations is employed. After a validation on a wind tunnel urban canyon test case, the dispersion within the canopy of two relevant urban pollutants, nitrogen dioxide (NO 2 ) and particulate matter with an aerodynamic diameter smaller than 10 µm (PM 10 ), is studied. An experimental field campaign led to the availability of wind velocity and direction data, as well as PM 10 concentrations in some key locations within the urban canyon. To accurately predict the concentration field, a relevant dispersion parameter, the turbulent

No abstract