Wind flow in an urban environment.

Area of Science:

• Environmental Engineering
• Urban Meteorology
• Fluid Dynamics

Background:

• Urban built environments create complex wind flow patterns due to building interactions.
• Random building layouts can lead to localized high wind speeds and vortices.
• These wind conditions pose risks such as discomfort, particulate resuspension, and rain penetration.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the impact of building layouts on ground-level wind environments.
• To quantify wind speed increases in built-up areas using field measurements.
• To provide data for optimizing urban planning and architectural design.

Main Methods:

• Conducted field measurements at Kent Ridge Campus, National University of Singapore.
• Utilized DANTEC 54N10 Multichannel Flow Analyser and Probes for data collection.
• Analyzed results using non-dimensional windspeed coefficients.

Main Results:

• Identified significant windspeed increases in specific urban configurations.
• Observed pronounced channel and venturi effects influencing local wind dynamics.
• Quantified windspeed variations based on building geometry and arrangement.

Conclusions:

• Building layout is a critical factor in determining urban wind environments.
• Channel and venturi effects demonstrably increase wind speeds.
• Findings offer valuable guidelines for architects and engineers in designing safer and more comfortable urban spaces.