PURPOSES : The objective of this study is to analyze the uniform diffusion mechanism of precursor gas species, and the effect of NOx reduction technology in a full-scale particulate matter testing facility, using computational fluid dynamics (CFD).
METHODS : A full-scale environment chamber was constructed to evaluate the effects of particulate matter reduction technologies on the road. CFD analysis was conducted to simulate the road environment conditions in the chamber, and investigate the effect of the NOx removal panel. The time required to reach the NOx concentration to target value in the fluid field was determined at a given inflow velocity, inlet direction, and initial inflow concentration. The effect of the NOx removal panel, and solar energy on the reduction characteristics of the NOx concentration in the environment chamber was analyzed.
RESULTS : The inflow velocity was determined to be the major factor affecting the time required to reach a uniform target NOx concentration in the environment chamber. The inlet location in the transverse direction requires additional time to approach the uniform target concentration, than the longitudinal direction at the same inflow velocity. Based on the CFD analysis in the 1ppm concentration condition of the chamber, a two-fold increase in the NOx removal panel efficiency can reduce the time to target concentration by approximately 50%. It is also observed that a 20% increase in solar energy can decrease the time to target concentration by 4%–12% depending on the panel efficiency.
CONCLUSIONS : This study proved that a full-scale environment chamber can be effectively utilized to evaluate the particulate matter reduction technologies applied in road facilities