Experimental Study on Cross-ventilation of a Generic Building in Highly-dense Urban Areas: Impact of Planar Area Density and Wind Direction

Shirzadi, Mohammadreza; Tominaga, Yoshihide; Mirzaei, Parham A

Abstract

This study presents the experimental results on cross-ventilation in a generic low-rise building placed in highly-dense urban configurations. Flow visualization studies were conducted by utilization of a smoke generator in order to investigate the nature of the flow pattern inside and around the cross-ventilated building. Moreover, distribution of the wind surface pressure coefficients over windward and leeward façades and internal walls of the target building were measured using a pressure tap system. Furthermore, the airflow rate crossing through the openings was measured using a tracer gas method. Different building configurations, representing highly-dense urban areas, as well as different wind angles were investigated in this study Surprisingly, the experimental results reveal a noticeable difference between the mechanism of cross-ventilation in moderately-dense and highly-dense buildings arrangements. A clear leeward jet with a highly-transient nature can be observed, which is generated due to a leeward vortex formed by the target and downstream buildings. As another novel finding of this study, the cross-ventilation is understood to be highly transient in highly-dense urban areas with a strong periodic fresh air pulsation through the windward and leeward openings. This behavior is fundamentally far from the steady state models considered for such cross-ventilation scenarios in literature.

Citation

Shirzadi, M., Tominaga, Y., & Mirzaei, P. A. (2020). Experimental Study on Cross-ventilation of a Generic Building in Highly-dense Urban Areas: Impact of Planar Area Density and Wind Direction. Journal of Wind Engineering and Industrial Aerodynamics, 196, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jweia.2019.104030

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Nov 3, 2019
• Online Publication Date: Nov 21, 2019
• Publication Date: 2020-01
• Deposit Date: Nov 12, 2019
• Publicly Available Date: Nov 22, 2020
• Journal: Journal of Wind Engineering and Industrial Aerodynamics
• Print ISSN: 0167-6105
• Electronic ISSN: 0167-6105
• Publisher: Elsevier
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 196
• Article Number: 104030
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jweia.2019.104030
• Keywords: Wind tunnel experiment; cross-ventilation; urban areas; wind surface pressure; tracer gas; CFD
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/3232884
• Publisher URL: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0167610519306300