Large Eddy Simulation study on the structure of turbulent flow in a complex city

Tolias, I.C., Koutsourakis, N., Hertwig, D. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2483-2675, Efthimiou, G.C., Venetsanos, A.G. and Bartzis, J.G. (2018) Large Eddy Simulation study on the structure of turbulent flow in a complex city. Journal of Wind Engineering and Industrial Aerodynamics, 177. 101 - 116. ISSN 0167-6105 doi: 10.1016/j.jweia.2018.03.017

Abstract/Summary

Abstract Large Eddy Simulation (LES) of atmospheric flows has become an increasingly popular modelling approach within the last years, as it has the potential to provide deeper insight into unsteady flow phenomena. LES can be improved and validated using specifically designed and well documented wind tunnel datasets. In this work, we evaluate the performance of LES against a wind tunnel experiment in a semi-idealized city (Michel-Stadt; CEDVAL-LES database) and use the LES results to study the structure of the turbulent flow at the particular urban area. The first, second and third order statistics are presented, as well as velocity frequency distributions and energy spectra. The results compare well with the experimental values. Information about special features of the flow field is also provided. A particular focus of this work is put on the influence of grid resolution on the results. Five different grids are examined and the required resolution for turbulent flow within the canopy layer is evaluated. This study reveals the strong potential of LES for urban flow simulations. It is shown that LES can assess highly non-Gaussian flow behaviour in street canyons, which has implications for urban ventilation, wind comfort assessment and urban design.

Item Type	Article
URI	https://reading-clone.eprints-hosting.org/id/eprint/76860
Identification Number/DOI	10.1016/j.jweia.2018.03.017
Refereed	Yes
Divisions	Science > School of Mathematical, Physical and Computational Sciences > Department of Meteorology
Uncontrolled Keywords	ADREA-HF
Publisher	Elsevier
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