ENVI met tutorial

Air Quality Monitoring Network: Air quality modelling

By Marco Guevara
ENVI met is a CFD software, based in finite element numerical approach, this application is designed
to model environmental phenomena in exterior micro scale domains.

A CFD modeling is characterized by three main steps in its development: pre processing, processing
and pos processing.

The pre processing corresponds to the geometry preparation, domain specification, emissions
inventory, sources, meteorology and set up.

The processing corresponds to the software calculations development.

And pos processing is related with the results data analysis and management to get conclusions.

Installation

This software is a licensed software, but it is possible to use a student version. This academic version
of the software can be downloaded from the software developers website:

http://www.envi-met.com

Once in the website, it is necessary to follow the steps described below to download the software
Click in the button highlighted in the next figure:

This will bring us to the Envi met software web page. Once in this site you should go to the download
section.
Then download the installation file .EXE.

The software installer .EXE is then executed as administrator.

At this point the software requires a password, to get this password you have to register as user
with an email with .edu extension, to do so follow the next steps:

Clicking this option you will be directed to a form with the data required for the registration.
Then two emails the first one contains the confirmation, the second one contains the password.
After this you follow the typical installation steps.

The password will be delivered in an email as follows:

To check the software user guide and manual, this can be viewed in the following link:

If the installation was successful you will be able to see the icon as direct access in the desktop:
Double clicking this access the main work center of ENVI met will be open.

The first recommended step is always the creation and management of projects, for this reason the
first application of ENVI met to be used is the manage projects and workspaces. In this application
we can create and manage projects from ENVI met. This allow us to organize the simulations.
For this case we will create the project called ejemplo_tutorial_1.

After defining the project the first technical step is to define the domain and the mesh. For this we
will use the application called Space, this can be acceded through the ENVI met headquarter:

The easiest way to define a domain is using an image as guide to do this it is necessary to define the
domain image with .bmp extension using google earth and paint.

For this example we will use the Sede Nacional Jose Celestino Mutis from UNAD in Bogot:
This image must be transformed into .bmp before be used in Space. This can be done using paint
following the next steps:
Once we have the domain image in .bmp format the image can be uploaded in the Space application
of ENVI met:
To link the domain under development to the project, it is necessary to select it from the main menu
in the project options:
Once the domain is linked to a project, the setting of the domain must be defined, do this by clicking
the Basic settings, new area button.

Then a form with the general data of the domain must be completed as follows:
The software has a very useful feature called Model rotation out of grid north, this feature allows
the user to fix or adjust the north if there is a different orientation in the image . bmp used as base.
Once this settings are set, the first objects to consider are the buildings, the main feature to be used
in the buildings is the height, you should define the height and add building sections per cell in the
domain.

The next image shows the area corresponding to buildings of 25 m high.

Once the building are located in the domain, the next step is to define the vegetation cells, this are
areas with trees or vegetal beings in the domain. Click the Vegetation option in the top of the side
menu, and then define the type of vegetation to be considered in the model as is shown in the
following example image:

Another important feature to be considered is the surface material, in this case the asphalt road is
defined for the whole surface 0 m level domain.

It is possible to see the simulation domain mesh by hiding the image:

Is always recommended to save the domain files in the same folder than the project, and save
frequently:

The next step is to define the emission factor for the vehicular traffic. The cells with sources of
pollutants are defined in the domain with the application Space, but the emission sources to be
loaded must be defined in the application called Manage Database also accessible in the ENVI met
headquarter:
This application must be executed without closing the Space application.

The Manage Database program will show the following windows, but the one of main interest is the
window called sources.

In sources we will create the sources of pollutants according to the emissions inventory or emissions
factor of the area of study, to create one new source of pollution there is a button at the top:
Then for each source can be defined a emissions profile of many pollutants for a day. Also it is
possible to define sources of different types such as point, line or area, in this case we use area.
When the pollution sources data is generated and saved, come back to the program Space, and
update the info, in the side menu select the sources option and the sources defined by you before
will appear:
The for each source select the corresponding location in the domain:
Finally save the domain built in Space.

The next step is to configure the meteorology data, and we are still in the pre processing steps. To
do this using the application called configuration wizard, also available in the ENVI met
headquarter.

The follow menu will show up:

Check the project is the same you are working on. Click next and the menu to upload the domain
developed will appears.
The domain will appear in the window as is shown if everything goes ok.

After this the steps are similar, click next.

In the meteorology data step it is necessary to introduce the info regarding your area of study. The
program gives the option to use a temperature profile for the day and a humidity profile:
With the window of pollutants it is necessary to include the pollutant to be modeled in this case
PM10.
Finally save the simulation input file and exit.

To develop the processing step, the ENVI met solver must be accessed, this is opened through the
headquarter access:

Check the option will be the first one with capability for small meshes, the other options requires a
paid license.

The solver will sow the following window, when you must do three things: load the simulation, check
the simulation input files, and finally run the simulation.
First load he input files for the simulation:

Then click on check simulation button at the top.

Then if the heck goes successful it is possible to run the simulation:
The progress can be checked at the top.
When te simulation is completed, the pos processing in ENVI met is developed using the program
LEONARDO, also available in the headquarter:

In this program the results can be visualized and managed to get the better analysis. The first step
is to load the simulation results, or output data from the simulation.
To see the navigation panel required to load the results you can click in the option:
Fix the space to be able to click on the select file option.
Here the folders in the output simulation files, contains different information, the folder called
atmosphere contains the data regarding meteorology results, and the pollution folder contains the
data for the pollutants dispersion results, in this case the main interest is the data regarding
pollutants.

Choose the file with the time hour you require.

Then to build the map follow the next steps:

Tutorial ENVI met Modelo de dispersin de PM10:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CJmox-Hfx-8&t=688s

Simulacin de Material Particulado Carrera 13 con ENVI met:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-5BWHR2aEjQ

Aplicacin del software ENVI-Met para simular emisiones:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hAgG1UeDcfU&t=679s