TITLE:
Dispersion Modeling of Particulate Matter in Different Size Ranges Releasing from a Biosolids Applied Agricultural Field Using Computational Fluid Dynamics
AUTHORS:
Praneeth Nimmatoori, Ashok Kumar
KEYWORDS:
Numerical Modeling, Particulate Pollution, Biosolids, Agriculture
JOURNAL NAME:
Advances in Chemical Engineering and Science,
Vol.11 No.2,
April
29,
2021
ABSTRACT: This paper proposes a methodology using computational fluid dynamics
(CFD)-FLUENT to simulate the dispersion of particulate
matter releasing from a biosolid applied
agricultural field and predict the particulate concentrations for different
ranges of particle sizes. The discrete phase model (Lagrangian-Eulerian approach) was used in combination with each of the
four turbulence models: Standard kε (kε), Realizable kε (Rkε), Standard kω (kω), and Shear-stress transport k-ω (SST) to predict particulate matter
size concentrations for distances downwind of the agricultural field. In this modeling approach, particulates were
simulated as discrete phase and air as continuous phase.
The predicted particulate matter concentrations were compared statistically
with their corresponding field study observations to evaluate the performance
of turbulence models. The statistical analysis concluded that among four
turbulence models, the discrete phase model when used with Rkε performed the best in predicting particulate matter
concentrations for low (u u u > 5 m/s) wind
speeds, Rkε, kω, and SST showed similar performances. The discrete phase model
using Rkε performed very well and
modeled the best concentrations for the
particle sizes (μm): 0.23, 0.3, 0.4, 0.5, 0.65, 0.8, 1, 1.6, 2, 3, 4,
and 5. For particle sizes: 7.5 and 10, the performances of Rkε, kε, kω, and SST were similar.