Study of Near-field Dispersion through Large Groups of Obstacles

Abstract

The flow and dispersion around the obstacles is important to understand the pollution problem in the urban areas. This study presents the preliminary results of the experiment carried out at Dugway Proving Ground, Utah. It shows that the presence of obstacles has a significant effect on the structure of the plume. Both horizontal plume spread (σ y ) and vertical plume spread (σ z ) are higher in arrays of obstacles compared to without obstacle configuration. It is also observed that the concentrations in arrays of obstacles are generally lower than those without obstacles. The modeling results show that the Gaussian plume model for the timeaveraged concentration in the near-field can provide important information with few input parameters. The information obtained from the controlled conditions of the model canopy can be useful for interpreting data from real urban areas.