Abstract

The effects of windbreaks on the reduction of suspended particles are investigated using a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model with the ${\kappa}-{\varepsilon}$ turbulence closure scheme based on the renormalization group (RNG) theory. In the control experiment, the recirculation zones behind the storage piles are generated and, as a whole, relatively monotonous flow patterns appear. When the windbreaks with the 0% porosity are constructed, the recirculation zones are generated by the windbreaks and very complicated flow patterns appear due to the interference between the windbreaks and storage piles. The porosity of the windbreaks suppresses the generation of the recirculation zone and decreases the wind velocity in the windbreaks as well as that outside the windbreaks. As the emission of suspended particles from the storage piles are closely related with the friction velocity at the surfaces of the storage piles, variation of the friction velocity and total amount of the emission of the suspended particles with the height and porosity of the windbreaks are investigated. The results show that higher and more porous windbreaks emit less suspended particles and that the reduction effect of the porosity is still more effective than that of the height. In the case of the windbreak with 30 m height and 50% porosity, friction velocities above the storage piles are smaller than the critical friction velocity above which particles would be suspended. As a result, total amount of suspended particles are much fewer than those in other cases.

Keywords

• CFD model;
• Windbreaks;
• Porosity;
• Suspended particles;
• Friction velocity