CFD optimization of a vegetation barrier

Abstract

In this study we deal with a problem of particulate matter dispersion modelling in a presence of a vegetation. We present a method to evaluate the efficiency of the barrier and to optimize its parameters. We use a CFD solver based on the RANS equations to model the air flow in a simplified 2D domain containing a vegetation block adjacent to a road, which serves as a source of the pollutant. Modelled physics captures the processes of a gravitational settling of the particles, dry deposition of the particles on the vegetation, turbulence generation by the road traffic and effect of the vegetation on the air flow. To optimize the effectivity of the barrier we employ a gradient based optimization process. The results show that the optimized variant relies mainly on the effect of increased turbulent diffusion by a sparse vegetation and less on the dry deposition of the pollutant on the vegetation.