Pedestrian wind comfort optimization by adjoint CFD model analysis

At present no clear procedure exists for the development of optimal remedial measures in pedestrian wind comfort studies. Instead, an appeal is made to the experience and intuition of the investigator to assess a priori which possible measures might be effective and could therefore be considered for further analysis. In this paper the use of adjoint Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) methods is investigated as a first step towards a more rigorous wind comfort optimization framework. These methods can be used to determine the sensitivity of mean wind velocity in a target area to grid deformations, which near building surfaces is indicative of the effect a geometric change in a certain location can have. It is shown that this method can be used to generate sensitivity maps in which the most opportune locations for remedial action are graphically displayed.