CFD simulation of pollution dispersion from thermal power plants in the atmosphere

Abstract

Abstract. This paper presents CFD simulation of pollution dispersion from a thermal power plant. Carbon dioxide was chosen as the scattering gas, as it constitutes the main share of emissions from the energy industry. The model was tested using experimental results performed using wind tunnel data available in the literature. A comparative analysis of the results of this article with experimental and numerical data was performed. It showed that the results of this article were closer to the experimental results than the calculations of previous authors. The minimum relative error with the experiment was less by 4.11% at the pipe exit and by 2.52% at a distance x/D=3 from the source, than other results. Based on this verification, the spread of pollution from thermal power plant (TPP) in real physical dimensions was modeled. The k-epsilon turbulence model was used taking into account buoyancy. The calculations were performed using the ANSYS Fluent 18.1 software package. As a result, the distance from the source was calculated, at which pollution will reach the ground surface (~ 2 km). Obtained distance is quite big since this TPP is located in an area which is far from residential settlements and there are no natural or architectural obstacles around.