Estimating Mean Wind Profiles Inside Realistic Urban Canopies

Research output: Journal Publications and ReviewsRGC 21 - Publication in refereed journalpeer-review

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Detail(s)

Original languageEnglish
Article number50
Journal / PublicationAtmosphere
Volume14
Issue number1
Online published27 Dec 2022
Publication statusPublished - Jan 2023

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Abstract

Mean wind profiles within a unit-aspect-ratio street canyon have been estimated by solving the three-dimensional Poisson equation for a set of discrete vortex sheets. The validity of this approach, which assumes inviscid vortex dynamics away from boundaries and a small nonlinear contribution to the growth of turbulent fluctuations, is tested for a series of idealised and realistic flows. In this paper, the effects of urban geometry on accuracy are examined with neutral flow over shallow, deep, asymmetric and realistic canyons, while thermal effects are investigated for a single street canyon and both bottom cooling and heating. The estimated mean profiles of the streamwise and spanwise velocity components show good agreement with reference profiles obtained from the large-eddy simulation: the canyon-averaged errors (e.g., normalised absolute errors around 1%) are of the same order of magnitude as those for the unit-aspect-ratio street canyon. It is argued that the approach generalises to more realistic flows because strong spatial localisation of the vorticity field is preserved. This work may be applied to high-resolution modelling of winds and pollutants, for which mean wind profiles are required, and fast statistical modelling, for which physically-based estimates can serve as initial guesses or substitutes for analytical models.

© 2022 by the authors.

Research Area(s)

  • computational fluid dynamics (CFD), stratification, urban geometry, vortex dynamics, wind direction, LARGE-EDDY SIMULATION, CONVECTIVE BOUNDARY-LAYER, STREET CANYONS, POLLUTANT DISPERSION, TUNNEL EXPERIMENTS, VELOCITY PROFILES, CFD MODEL, AIR-FLOW, TURBULENCE, EXPOSURE

Citation Format(s)

Estimating Mean Wind Profiles Inside Realistic Urban Canopies. / Wang, Huanhuan; Furtak-Cole, Eden; Ngan, Keith.
In: Atmosphere, Vol. 14, No. 1, 50, 01.2023.

Research output: Journal Publications and ReviewsRGC 21 - Publication in refereed journalpeer-review

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