Large-Eddy-simulation analysis of airflows and strong wind hazards in urban areas

Takemi, T., Yoshida, T., Horiguchi, M. and Vanderbauwhede, W. (2020) Large-Eddy-simulation analysis of airflows and strong wind hazards in urban areas. Urban Climate, 32, 100625. (doi: 10.1016/j.uclim.2020.100625)

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Abstract

Understanding the characteristics of urban airflows with complex geometrical features is very important from viewpoints of assessing strong wind hazards in the region. This study investigated turbulent airflows and strong wind hazards in an urban area by conducting large-eddy simulations (LESs) with explicit representations of buildings and structures. A business district, including historical architectures, of Kyoto City was chosen. The sensitivity experiments with realistic and idealized building arrangements indicated that the actual, complicated arrangement of buildings as well as the building height variability would enhance an unsteady nature of airflows in urban canopy. An analysis of strong wind hazards under a typhoon condition shows that sustained winds are stronger along streamwise-oriented major streets and over open spaces while instantaneous winds become stronger especially within areas with a mixture of high-rise buildings embedded in low-rise building areas/open spaces. It was indicated that wind gustiness increases with the decrease in building plane-area index. The analysis suggested that both the building height variability and the complex arrangement of buildings are considered to enhance the gustiness of surface winds. This study demonstrated that an LES model is practically useful for assessing the strong wind hazards in urban areas.

Item Type:Articles
Additional Information:This study was supported by Japan Society for Promotion of Sciences Kakenhi 18H01680, 18K19953, and the Environment Research and Technology Development Fund (2-1905) of the Environmental Restoration and Conservation Agency of Japan.
Status:Published
Refereed:Yes
Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID:Vanderbauwhede, Professor Wim
Authors: Takemi, T., Yoshida, T., Horiguchi, M., and Vanderbauwhede, W.
College/School:College of Science and Engineering > School of Computing Science
Journal Name:Urban Climate
Publisher:Elsevier
ISSN:2212-0955
ISSN (Online):2212-0955
Published Online:25 April 2020
Copyright Holders:Copyright © 2020 The Authors
First Published:First published in Urban Climate 32: 100625
Publisher Policy:Reproduced under a Creative Commons License

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Project CodeAward NoProject NamePrincipal InvestigatorFunder's NameFunder RefLead Dept
170306Hardware Acceleration of Co-Simulation for the Study of Extreme Weather EventsWim VanderbauwhedeEngineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC)EP/L026201/1Computing Science