Numerical simulation of odor plume in indoor ventilated environments for studying odor source localization with mobile robots

Abstract

To facilitate the research of mobile robot based odor source localization (OSL) and evaluate different strategies for the OSL, numerical simulation of odor plume in indoor ventilated environments is addressed. On the basis of the FLUENT software package, the 3-D wind field of an indoor ventilated environment is calculated using the Reynolds average approach, where the real wind velocity measured by a 3-D anemometer is taken as the inlet boundary condition of the simulation. In a fixed height, the 2-D wind field is obtained by superimposing a normal-distribution fluctuating speed on the calculated advection velocity, and the 2-D odor plume is built by combining the Farrell's filament concentration model with the 2-D simulated wind field. Through comparing the wind and concentration information recorded using multiple sensor nodes with the simulated ones, the creditability of the established simulated plume is demonstrated.