Ventilation potential by thermal buoyancy in an urban city: numerical simulation and field experiment study

Abstract

The thermal buoyancy induced air flow may become important under the calm conditions. A 3D RNG k-ε turbulent model was used for the numerical simulation of a simple city model. The results show that the ventilation effectiveness is highly depends on the thermal buoyancy intensity, urban planning and geometry, and the atmospheric conditions. In addition, the field measurement using the infrared thermography was also conducted to obtain the diurnal thermal variation of the urban objects and analyze the thermal induced flow. Both studies provide a good understanding of urban ventilation by thermal buoyancy and useful information for urban planning.