Dr Christina Vanderwel: Urban aerodynamics and turbulent dispersion AbstractExposure to poor air quality in urban areas is one of the largest environmental health risks in the UK. Accurate pollution dispersion models are important for air quality forecasting and to inform urban planning and policy. There is currently a gap in understanding in how air pollution spreads at localscales (those relevant to pedestrians) and how it can be affected by heterogeneous urban terrain. This talk describes high-fidelity experiments of urban aerodynamics using scale models in a water flume facility and a passive dye as a surrogate for air pollution. Simultaneous Particle Image Velocimetry(PIV) and Planar Laser-Induced Fluorescence (PLIF) capture full two-dimensional quantitative images of the velocity and concentration at the fine scales near the pollution sources and at the city scale.The results highlight the role of tall buildings and local geometry on the relative importance of advection and turbulent diffusion processes. In this context, the strengths and limitations of current turbulent dispersion models are discussed for simplified, urban, and indoor applications.BiographyChristina Vanderwel is an Associate Professor in the Aeronautical and Astronautical Engineering Department at the University of Southampton. Since 2023, she is also the Head of the Aerodynamics and Flight Mechanics Research Group. She received her PhD from the University of Ottawa, Canada, in 2014, where she studied coherent structures and turbulent dispersion in uniformly sheared turbulence. From 2015-2017, she held a Marie-Curie Fellowship in Southampton studying turbulent boundary layers over multi-scale roughness. Since 2020, she has been funded by a UKRI Future Leaders Fellowship tostudy turbulent dispersion in urban flows. She is on the advisory board of the National Wind Tunnel Facility and a member of the UK Fluids Network executive committee. May 02 2024 14.00 - 15.00 Dr Christina Vanderwel: Urban aerodynamics and turbulent dispersion Edinburgh Fluid Dynamics Group welcomes Dr Christina Vanderwel in an exciting new series of colloquia co-funded by the Schools of Engineering, Mathematics, and Physics and Astronomy. Lecture Theatre 1, Daniel Rutherford Building, King's Buildings This article was published on Wednesday 2 September 2026
Dr Christina Vanderwel: Urban aerodynamics and turbulent dispersion AbstractExposure to poor air quality in urban areas is one of the largest environmental health risks in the UK. Accurate pollution dispersion models are important for air quality forecasting and to inform urban planning and policy. There is currently a gap in understanding in how air pollution spreads at localscales (those relevant to pedestrians) and how it can be affected by heterogeneous urban terrain. This talk describes high-fidelity experiments of urban aerodynamics using scale models in a water flume facility and a passive dye as a surrogate for air pollution. Simultaneous Particle Image Velocimetry(PIV) and Planar Laser-Induced Fluorescence (PLIF) capture full two-dimensional quantitative images of the velocity and concentration at the fine scales near the pollution sources and at the city scale.The results highlight the role of tall buildings and local geometry on the relative importance of advection and turbulent diffusion processes. In this context, the strengths and limitations of current turbulent dispersion models are discussed for simplified, urban, and indoor applications.BiographyChristina Vanderwel is an Associate Professor in the Aeronautical and Astronautical Engineering Department at the University of Southampton. Since 2023, she is also the Head of the Aerodynamics and Flight Mechanics Research Group. She received her PhD from the University of Ottawa, Canada, in 2014, where she studied coherent structures and turbulent dispersion in uniformly sheared turbulence. From 2015-2017, she held a Marie-Curie Fellowship in Southampton studying turbulent boundary layers over multi-scale roughness. Since 2020, she has been funded by a UKRI Future Leaders Fellowship tostudy turbulent dispersion in urban flows. She is on the advisory board of the National Wind Tunnel Facility and a member of the UK Fluids Network executive committee. May 02 2024 14.00 - 15.00 Dr Christina Vanderwel: Urban aerodynamics and turbulent dispersion Edinburgh Fluid Dynamics Group welcomes Dr Christina Vanderwel in an exciting new series of colloquia co-funded by the Schools of Engineering, Mathematics, and Physics and Astronomy. Lecture Theatre 1, Daniel Rutherford Building, King's Buildings This article was published on Wednesday 2 September 2026
May 02 2024 14.00 - 15.00 Dr Christina Vanderwel: Urban aerodynamics and turbulent dispersion Edinburgh Fluid Dynamics Group welcomes Dr Christina Vanderwel in an exciting new series of colloquia co-funded by the Schools of Engineering, Mathematics, and Physics and Astronomy.
