A Lattice-Boltzmann-Based Modelling Chain for Traffic-Related Atmospheric Pollutant Dispersion at the Local Urban Scale
Résumé
Urban traffic-related air pollution is a major source of environmental and health damage and is difficult to quantify due to its inherent physical complexity. We construct a CFD-based simulation framework coupling an efficient numerical method for turbulent fluid flows with a microscopic traffic model and an emissions model to simulate road transport pollutant dispersion at the urban microscale. We improve the open-source Lattice-Boltzmann based CFD software OpenLB to overcome its original stability deficiencies for high Reynolds number flows. A stable recursive regularization procedure with a double distribution function approach is proposed to solve an advection diffusion equation for passive scalar transport at high Reynolds number. The code is successfully validated on three reference cases of increasing complexity and the traffic model SUMO along with a physical engine emissions model are coupled with OpenLB to simulate traffic-induced pollution from a road network in a realistic complex geometry. Transient flow features are analysed and the time-averaged concentration levels in different neighbourhoods of the considered geometry are evaluated: high concentration levels are observed close to the streets but also inside specific building infrastructures due to complex wind dynamics. Analyses of altitudinal concentration variations show that flow recirculations located close to traffic lights can drive pollutant over the buildings and increase concentration levels inside inner courtyards. Time-averaged concentration maps are constructed using both spatially uniform and non-uniform line sources and it is shown that using uniform sources leads to up to 20% local concentration overestimations inside the urban canopy.