Verification of Speed-up Mechanism of Pedestrian-level Winds Around Square Buildings by CFD

초록

Various studies have been conducted on pedestrian-level wind environments around buildings. With regard to the speed-up mechanism of pedestrian-level winds, there are references to downwash effect due to the vertical pressure gradient of boundary layer flow and venturi effect due to flow blocking by the building. Two factors contribute to increase or decrease of downwash effect: change in two-dimensional / three-dimensional air flow pattern (Type 1) and change in downwash wind speed due to building size that does not accompany change in airflow pattern (Type 2). Previous studies have shown that downwash effect has a greater influence in increasing or decreasing the area of strong wind than venturi effect. However, these considerations are derived from the horizontal mean wind speed distribution at pedestrian level and are not the result of three-dimensional flow field around the building. Therefore, in this study, Computational Fluid Dynamics using Large Eddy Simulation were performed to verify the downwash phenomena that contributes to increase in wind speed at pedestrian level.