Large-scale forcing effects on wind flows in the urban canopy: impact of inflow conditions

Alessio Ricci; Ivo Kalkman; Bert Blocken; Massimiliano Burlando; Andrea Freda; Maria Pia Repetto

doi:10.1016/j.scs.2018.08.012

Large-scale forcing effects on wind flows in the urban canopy: impact of inflow conditions

Alessio Ricci, Ivo Kalkman, Bert Blocken, Massimiliano Burlando, Andrea Freda, Maria Pia Repetto

Building Physics

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › Academic › peer-review

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Abstract

Wind flow modeling in urban areas is usually performed by means of Wind-Tunnel (WT) testing or Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) simulations. Results obtained with both techniques can be affected by the boundary conditions. This study aims at investigating how two sets of inflow conditions, termed set 1 and set 2 and calculated respectively using the equations proposed by Richards and Hoxey (1993) and Tominaga et al. (2008), may affect the accuracy of the results in terms of mean wind speed, turbulent kinetic energy, yaw and pitch angles when predicting wind flows in urban areas. 3D steady RANS simulations were performed for a selected urban area (“Quartiere La Venezia” in Livorno, Italy). WT tests on the same urban model were used to validate the CFD simulations. Mean wind profiles at 25 positions in the urban area were compared and the statistical performance was quantified using four metrics for both sets of inflow conditions. The results obtained using the two sets of inflow conditions showed comparable performances in terms of wind flow predictions in the urban canopy, which means that at the building scale there is no need to use more accurate conditions because they are as effective as the simpler ones.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	593-610
Number of pages	18
Journal	Sustainable Cities and Society
Volume	42
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scs.2018.08.012
Publication status	Published - 1 Oct 2018

Funding

The authors gratefully acknowledge the Port Authority of Livorno for the use of data obtained by its anemometric monitoring network. All the monitoring devices and the HPC system at DICCA were funded by the European Cross-border Programme Italy/France “Maritime” 2007–2013 through the “Wind and Ports” (CUP: B87E09000000007) and “Wind, Ports, and Sea” (CUP: B82F13000100005) projects. This research has been carried out in the framework of the Project “"Wind monitoring, simulation and forecasting for the smart management and safety of port, urban and territorial systems”", funded by Compagnia di San Paolo (grant number 2015.0333 , ID ROL: 9820) in the period 2016-2018. The authors acknowledge the TU1304 COST ACTION “WINERCOST”. The authors also thank the anonymous reviewers for their valuable comments on the manuscript.

Keywords

CFD simulation
Inflow conditions
RANS
Statistical performance
Urban wind flow

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

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10.1016/j.scs.2018.08.012

Publisher VersionFinal published version, 7.4 MBLicence: TAVERNE

Cite this

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title = "Large-scale forcing effects on wind flows in the urban canopy: impact of inflow conditions",

abstract = "Wind flow modeling in urban areas is usually performed by means of Wind-Tunnel (WT) testing or Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) simulations. Results obtained with both techniques can be affected by the boundary conditions. This study aims at investigating how two sets of inflow conditions, termed set 1 and set 2 and calculated respectively using the equations proposed by Richards and Hoxey (1993) and Tominaga et al. (2008), may affect the accuracy of the results in terms of mean wind speed, turbulent kinetic energy, yaw and pitch angles when predicting wind flows in urban areas. 3D steady RANS simulations were performed for a selected urban area (“Quartiere La Venezia” in Livorno, Italy). WT tests on the same urban model were used to validate the CFD simulations. Mean wind profiles at 25 positions in the urban area were compared and the statistical performance was quantified using four metrics for both sets of inflow conditions. The results obtained using the two sets of inflow conditions showed comparable performances in terms of wind flow predictions in the urban canopy, which means that at the building scale there is no need to use more accurate conditions because they are as effective as the simpler ones.",

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AU - Freda, Andrea

AU - Repetto, Maria Pia

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N2 - Wind flow modeling in urban areas is usually performed by means of Wind-Tunnel (WT) testing or Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) simulations. Results obtained with both techniques can be affected by the boundary conditions. This study aims at investigating how two sets of inflow conditions, termed set 1 and set 2 and calculated respectively using the equations proposed by Richards and Hoxey (1993) and Tominaga et al. (2008), may affect the accuracy of the results in terms of mean wind speed, turbulent kinetic energy, yaw and pitch angles when predicting wind flows in urban areas. 3D steady RANS simulations were performed for a selected urban area (“Quartiere La Venezia” in Livorno, Italy). WT tests on the same urban model were used to validate the CFD simulations. Mean wind profiles at 25 positions in the urban area were compared and the statistical performance was quantified using four metrics for both sets of inflow conditions. The results obtained using the two sets of inflow conditions showed comparable performances in terms of wind flow predictions in the urban canopy, which means that at the building scale there is no need to use more accurate conditions because they are as effective as the simpler ones.

AB - Wind flow modeling in urban areas is usually performed by means of Wind-Tunnel (WT) testing or Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) simulations. Results obtained with both techniques can be affected by the boundary conditions. This study aims at investigating how two sets of inflow conditions, termed set 1 and set 2 and calculated respectively using the equations proposed by Richards and Hoxey (1993) and Tominaga et al. (2008), may affect the accuracy of the results in terms of mean wind speed, turbulent kinetic energy, yaw and pitch angles when predicting wind flows in urban areas. 3D steady RANS simulations were performed for a selected urban area (“Quartiere La Venezia” in Livorno, Italy). WT tests on the same urban model were used to validate the CFD simulations. Mean wind profiles at 25 positions in the urban area were compared and the statistical performance was quantified using four metrics for both sets of inflow conditions. The results obtained using the two sets of inflow conditions showed comparable performances in terms of wind flow predictions in the urban canopy, which means that at the building scale there is no need to use more accurate conditions because they are as effective as the simpler ones.

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Large-scale forcing effects on wind flows in the urban canopy: impact of inflow conditions

Abstract

Funding

Keywords

UN SDGs

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