On the generation of full-scale urban pedestrian level wind in the wind tunnel using passive and active turbulence generators

Abstract

The utilization of outdoor spaces is affected by their thermal environment. Wind, which determines the convective and evaporative heat loss from the human body, is one of the most influencing factors of thermal comfort. In the prevailing outdoor thermal comfort models, the convective heat transfer coefficients were pre-measured on a thermal manikin in a wind tunnel, where the wind speed was mostly stable. However, field measurements suggested that a typical outdoor wind process over complex terrains, like urban landscapes, are generally non-stationary. There is no experimental data on how the misrepresentation of wind may affect the convective heat transfer prediction for outdoor thermal comfort prediction. This study simulates urban pedestrian-level wind patterns in a wind tunnel by employing active and passive turbulence generators. Results show the turbulence scale through an active gust generator is approximately one to two orders of magnitude larger than the turbulence scale through a passive grid system. The eddy length scale can be adjusted through the rotation speed of the shutters. This opens the possibility of performing studies on measuring convective heat transfer coefficient under unsteady wind conditions, similar to the real outdoor environments.