Tracking and Estimating Facility Emissions in Complex Terrain and Urban Atmospheres Using Large Eddy Simulations

Abstract:

Tracking and quantifying emissions from facilities located in complex terrain and urban areas is a daunting task. Computational models may require atmospheric transport simulations at meter-scale resolution to account for turbulence effects induced by buildings and steep elevation, urban street canyons, downslope and upslope flows, and a variety of other complicating factors. To solve problems at these scales, we have developed a state-of-the-art computational fluid dynamics system called Aeolus that simulates the emissions and transport of gases and particles released in urban and complex areas. In prior work, we validated forward and inverse modeling simulations of Aeolus against tracer release experiments using turbulence-averaging approximations. Recently, we improved the ability to resolve fine scale turbulent mixing features in Aeolus through large eddy simulation (LES). Here we show the feasibility and limitations of using Aeolus LES modeling to estimate emissions from facilities in complex areas. We show how LES modeling can be used to help design sampling strategies to constrain facility emissions through inverse modeling.