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Building Simulation 2014, 7(4): 417-427 https://doi.org/10.1007/s12273-014-0180-9
Research Article | Issue | Published: 05 April 2013

Numerical study of the effects of trees on outdoor particle concentration distributions

Show Author's Information Wenjing Ji,  Bin Zhao( )
Department of Building Science, School of Architecture, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China
Keywords:
numerical simulation, indoor environment, particles, outdoor environment, trees
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Ji W, Zhao B. Numerical study of the effects of trees on outdoor particle concentration distributions. Building Simulation, 2014, 7(4): 417-427. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12273-014-0180-9
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Abstract Full text Electronic supplementary material About this article

Outdoor particles are a major contributor to indoor particles which influence the indoor air quality. The outdoor particle concentration also affects the outdoor air quality but the real outdoor particle concentration around buildings may differ from monitored concentrations at monitoring sites. One main factor is the effect of vegetation, especially trees. Numerical simulations were used to investigate the effects of trees on particle concentration distributions around target buildings. The drift flux model was combined with the Reynolds-Averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) model to model the particle distribution and the airflow. Thirteen cases were analyzed to compare the effects of tree type, tree-building distance and tree canopy-canopy distance on the outdoor particle concentration distribution. The results show that cypress trees reduce the outdoor particle concentration more than pine trees, that shorter tree-building distances (TBD) reduce the particle concentration more than longer tree-building distances, and that a zero tree canopy-canopy distance (CCD) reduces the particle concentration more than CCD=2 m. These results provide guidelines for determining the most effective configuration for trees to reduce outdoor particle concentrations near buildings.


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Electronic supplementary material
About this article

Numerical study of the effects of trees on outdoor particle concentration distributions

Show Author's information Wenjing Ji, Bin Zhao( )
Department of Building Science, School of Architecture, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China

Abstract

Outdoor particles are a major contributor to indoor particles which influence the indoor air quality. The outdoor particle concentration also affects the outdoor air quality but the real outdoor particle concentration around buildings may differ from monitored concentrations at monitoring sites. One main factor is the effect of vegetation, especially trees. Numerical simulations were used to investigate the effects of trees on particle concentration distributions around target buildings. The drift flux model was combined with the Reynolds-Averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) model to model the particle distribution and the airflow. Thirteen cases were analyzed to compare the effects of tree type, tree-building distance and tree canopy-canopy distance on the outdoor particle concentration distribution. The results show that cypress trees reduce the outdoor particle concentration more than pine trees, that shorter tree-building distances (TBD) reduce the particle concentration more than longer tree-building distances, and that a zero tree canopy-canopy distance (CCD) reduces the particle concentration more than CCD=2 m. These results provide guidelines for determining the most effective configuration for trees to reduce outdoor particle concentrations near buildings.

Keywords: numerical simulation, indoor environment, particles, outdoor environment, trees

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Publication history
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Acknowledgements

Publication history

Received: 08 December 2013
Revised: 30 January 2014
Accepted: 06 February 2014
Published: 05 April 2013
Issue date: August 2014

Copyright

© Tsinghua University Press and Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2014

Acknowledgements

This study was supported by the special fund of the Key Laboratory of Eco Planning & Green Building, Ministry of Education (Tsinghua University), China.

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