CFD analysis of ventilation efficiency around an elevated highway using visitation frequency and purging flow rate

The concentration of air pollution along roads is higher than the surrounding area because ventilation efficiency has decreased due to the high-density use of space along roads in recent years. In this study, ventilation efficiency around a heavily traffic road covered by an elevated highway and hemmed in along its side by buildings is evaluated using Visitation Frequency (VF, the frequency for pollutant to return to the objective domain) and Purging Flow Rate (PFR, the air flow rate for defining the local domain-averaged concentration). These are analyzed using Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) based on the standard k-epsilon model. The VF and PFR characteristics of four objective domains are analyzed in terms of the changes in wind direction and arrangements of the fencing dividing up and down direction in the road center under the elevated highway. The resulting VFs are more than 1.0 for all cases, which means that pollutants return to the objective domain restricted by the elevated highway and side buildings. The influence of the arrangement of the buildings around the objective domain and the structure in the domain on the VF is substantial. In cases where there are no obstacles under the elevated highway, the local air exchange rate in the domain tends to be improved. Using these indices, the urban ventilation efficiencies between different urban areas can be compared easily.