Wind comfort and wind safety for pedestrians are important requirements in urban areas. Many city authorities request studies of pedestrian wind comfort and wind safety for new buildings and new urban areas. These studies involve combining statistical meteorological data, aerodynamic information and criteria for wind comfort and wind safety. Detailed aerodynamic information can be obtained using Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD), which offers considerable advantages compared to wind tunnel testing. However, the accuracy and reliability of CFD simulations can easily be compromised. For this reason, several sets of best practice guidelines have been developed in the past decades. Based on these guidelines, this paper presents a general simulation and decision framework for the evaluation of pedestrian wind comfort and wind safety in urban areas with CFD. As a case study, pedestrian wind comfort and safety at the campus of Eindhoven University of Technology are analysed. The turbulent wind flow pattern over the campus terrain is obtained by solving the 3D steady Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes equations with the realisable [email protected] model on an extensive high-resolution grid based on grid-convergence analysis. The simulation results are compared with long-term and short-term on-site wind speed measurements. Wind comfort and wind safety are assessed and potential design improvements are evaluated. The framework and the case study are intended to support and guide future studies of wind comfort and wind safety with CFD and, this way, to contribute to improved wind environmental quality in urban areas.

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CFD simulation for pedestrian wind comfort and wind safety in urban areas: General decision framework and case study for the Eindhoven University campus

Urban microclimate studies are gaining popularity due to rapid urbanization. Many studies documented that urban microclimate can affect building energy performance, human morbidity and mortality and thermal comfort. Historically, urban microclimate studies were conducted with observational methods such as field measurements. In the last decades, with the advances in computational resources, numerical simulation approaches have become increasingly popular. Nowadays, especially simulations with Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) is frequently used to assess urban microclimate. CFD can resolve the transfer of heat and mass and their interaction with individual obstacles such as buildings. Considering the rapid increase in CFD studies of urban microclimate, this paper provides a review of research reported in journal publications on this topic till the end of 2015. The studies are categorized based on the following characteristics: morphology of the urban area (generic versus real) and methodology (with or without validation study). In addition, the studies are categorized by specifying the considered urban settings/locations, simulation equations and models, target parameters and keywords. This review documents the increasing popularity of the research area over the years. Based on the data obtained concerning the urban location, target parameters and keywords, the historical development of the studies is discussed and future perspectives are provided. According to the results, early CFD microclimate studies were conducted for model development and later studies considered CFD approach as a predictive methodology. Later, with the established simulation setups, research efforts shifted to case studies. Recently, an increasing amount of studies focus on urban scale adaptation measures. The review hints a possible change in this trend as the results from CFD simulations can be linked up with different aspects (e.g. economy) and with different scales (e.g. buildings), and thus, CFD can play an important role in transferring urban climate knowledge into engineering and design practice.

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A review on the CFD analysis of urban microclimate

The global trend towards urbanization explains the growing interest in the study of the modification of the urban climate due to the heat island effect and global warming, and its impact on energy use of buildings. Also urban comfort, health and durability, referring respectively to pedestrian wind/thermal comfort, pollutant dispersion and wind-driven rain are of interest. Urban Physics is a well-established discipline, incorporating relevant branches of physics, environmental chemistry, aerodynamics, meteorology and statistics. Therefore, Urban Physics is well positioned to provide key-contributions to the current urban problems and challenges. The present paper addresses the role of Urban Physics in the study of wind comfort, thermal comfort, energy demand, pollutant dispersion and wind-driven rain. Furthermore, the three major research methods applied in Urban Physics, namely field experiments, wind tunnel experiments and numerical simulations are discussed. Case studies illustrate the current challenges and the relevant contributions of Urban Physics.

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Urban Physics: Effect of the micro-climate on comfort, health and energy demand

A key review of building integrated photovoltaic (BIPV) systems

http://urbanphysics.net/2013_MM_DC_BB_JH_ATE_CHTC_review__Preprint.pdf

Review of external convective heat transfer coefficient models in building energy simulation programs: implementation and uncertainty

Numerical modelling of forced convective heat transfer from the inclined windward roof of an isolated low-rise building with application to photovoltaic/thermal systems

Chowdhury Jubayer

Papers

Numerical modelling of forced convective heat transfer from the inclined windward roof of an isolated low-rise building with application to photovoltaic/thermal systems

Numerical simulation of wind effects on a stand-alone ground mounted photovoltaic (PV) system

A numerical approach to the investigation of wind loading on an array of ground mounted solar photovoltaic (PV) panels

Novel techniques in wind engineering

CFD analysis of convective heat transfer from ground mounted solar panels