A fast model for pollutant dispersion at the neighbourhood scale

This paper is devoted to the development and evaluation of a fast three-dimensional Eulerian model for dispersion inside and above the urban canopy layer. Spatially averaged wind and diffusivity coefficient profiles obtained from the commercial Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) code FLUENT are used as input in the developed model. This model is numerically solved by means of a finite volume method and mean concentration outputs are compared with the corresponding results from FLUENT. We considered several canopies made of arrays of cubes laid in staggered position. Results from the comparison suggest the potential of this type of simple modelling approach. As the spatially averaged wind and diffusivity profiles are strongly dependent from the mean morphometry properties of the urban canopy, these results, though preliminary, highlight the necessity of using specific turbulence closure models where building effects at the neighbourhood scale are taken into account.