The impact of urban air pollution on human health has become an important problem, and the estimation of the amount of pollutants to which people are exposed is a major chanllenge. Usually, population exposure is only related to outdoor pollutant concentration, however people spend the most time inside buildings. In this context, the objective of this contribution is to relate the outdoor pollutant concentration at pedestrian level with the concentration inside a standard building. Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) simulations of pollutant dispersion are performed in an array of buildings where the interior of the central building (target building) is also simulated. Traffic-related pollutant are considered and several configurations of open/closed windows under different wind directions are modelled. The relationship between indoor concentration in each room and the spatially-averaged pollutant concentration in the street at pedestrian level is investigated. The results show a large variability of indoor concentrations depending on the configuration of open/closed windows, the floor of the room and the room location and the incidence angle of wind. In general, indoor concentration decreases with floor and indoor concentration is lower than average concentration in the street. However, for some conditions in the first-floor rooms indoor concentration is higher than the spatially-averaged concentration in the street at pedestrian level. Taking the average over all cases the indoor-outdoor concentration ratio is 0.6±0.2.
Towards a comprehensive urban air quality modelling and population exposure assessment: Relationship between outdoor pollutant concentration in sidewalks and indoor pollution inside buildings
Buccolieri R.;Gatto E.Penultimo
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2020-01-01
Abstract
The impact of urban air pollution on human health has become an important problem, and the estimation of the amount of pollutants to which people are exposed is a major chanllenge. Usually, population exposure is only related to outdoor pollutant concentration, however people spend the most time inside buildings. In this context, the objective of this contribution is to relate the outdoor pollutant concentration at pedestrian level with the concentration inside a standard building. Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) simulations of pollutant dispersion are performed in an array of buildings where the interior of the central building (target building) is also simulated. Traffic-related pollutant are considered and several configurations of open/closed windows under different wind directions are modelled. The relationship between indoor concentration in each room and the spatially-averaged pollutant concentration in the street at pedestrian level is investigated. The results show a large variability of indoor concentrations depending on the configuration of open/closed windows, the floor of the room and the room location and the incidence angle of wind. In general, indoor concentration decreases with floor and indoor concentration is lower than average concentration in the street. However, for some conditions in the first-floor rooms indoor concentration is higher than the spatially-averaged concentration in the street at pedestrian level. Taking the average over all cases the indoor-outdoor concentration ratio is 0.6±0.2.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
