TY - JOUR A1 - Schalau, Sebastian A1 - Habib, Abdel Karim A1 - Michel, S. T1 - A modified k-ε turbulence model for heavy gas dispersion in built-up environment N2 - For hazard assessment purposes, the dispersion of gases in complex urban areas is often a scenario to be considered. However, predicting the dispersion of heavy gases is still a challenge. In Germany, the VDI Guideline 3783, Part 1 and 2 is widely used for gas dispersion modelling. Whilst Part 1 uses a gauss model for calculating the dispersion of light or neutrally buoyant gases, Part 2 uses wind tunnel experiments to evaluate the heavier-than-air gas dispersion in generic built up areas. In practice, with this guideline, it is often not possible to adequately represent the existing obstacle configuration. To overcome this limitation, computational fluid dynamics (CFD) methods could be used. Whilst CFD models can represent obstacles in the dispersion area correctly, actual publications show that there is still further research needed to simulate the atmospheric flow and the heavy gas dispersion. This paper presents a modified k-ε-turbulence model that was developed in OpenFOAM v5.0 (England, London, The OpenFOAM Foundation Ltd Incorporated) to enhance the simulation of the atmospheric wind field and the heavy gas dispersion in built-up areas. Wind tunnel measurements for the dispersion of neutrally buoyant and heavy gases in built-up environments were used to evaluate the model. As a result, requirements for the simulation of the gas dispersion under atmospheric conditions have been identified and the model showed an overall good performance in predicting the experimental values. KW - Atmospheric boundary layer KW - OpenFOAM KW - Heavy gas KW - CFD PY - 2023 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:kobv:b43-568898 VL - 14 IS - 1 SP - 1 EP - 21 PB - MDPI AN - OPUS4-56889 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Schalau, Sebastian A1 - Habib, Abdel Karim T1 - Atmospheric wind field modelling with OpenFOAM for near-ground gas dispersion N2 - CFD simulations of near-ground gas dispersion depend significantly on the accuracy of the wind field. When simulating wind fields with conventional RANS turbulence models, the velocity and turbulence profiles specified as inlet boundary conditions change rapidly in the approach flow region. As a result, when hazardous materials are released, the extent of hazardous areas is calculated based on an approach flow that differs significantly from the boundary conditions defined. To solve this problem, a turbulence model with consistent boundary conditions was developed to ensure a horizontally homogeneous approach flow. Instead of the logarithmic vertical velocity profile, a power law is used to overcome the problem that with the logarithmic profile, negative velocities would be calculated for heights within the roughness length. With this, the problem that the distance of the wall-adjacent cell midpoint has to be higher than the roughness length is solved, so that a high grid resolution can be ensured even in the near-ground region which is required to simulate gas dispersion. The evaluation of the developed CFD model using the German guideline VDI 3783/9 and wind tunnel experiments with realistic obstacle configurations showed a good agreement between the calculated and the measured values and the ability to achieve a horizontally homogenous approach flow. KW - OpenFOAM KW - Gas dispersion KW - Atmospheric boundary layer KW - Turbulence model PY - 2021 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:kobv:b43-539095 VL - 12 IS - 8 SP - 933 PB - MDPI AN - OPUS4-53909 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER -