Pedestrian Wind Environment around Buildings: Literature Review and Practical Examples

Abstract

The construction of a building inevitably changes the microclimate in its vicinity. In particular near high-rise buildings, high wind velocities are often introduced at pedestrian level that can be experienced as uncomfortable or even dangerous. Therefore, the design of a building should not only focus on the building envelope and on providing good indoor environment, but should also include the effect of the design on the outdoor environment. The outdoor environment of a building, in particular related to wind, has received relatively little attention in the Building Physics community. The present paper addresses Building Physicists and focuses on the outdoor wind environment for pedestrians. First, a literature review on pedestrian wind studies is provided. The relation between wind effects, wind comfort, wind danger and wind climate is outlined. A brief review on wind tunnel and numerical modeling of building aerodynamics and pedestrian wind is given. The typical wind flow pattern around buildings and the related wind environment at pedestrian level are discussed. Second, these problems are illustrated by means of four practical examples, where the unfavorable pedestrian wind environment has been, is or should be a matter of serious concern for the building designers and the building owner.

Comparative analysis of numerical and experimental studies of the airflow around the sample of urban development

“…In addition, the washed away oil leaves more pigment where the flow is slower and the shear stress -less intense. The resulting images provide information about the time averaged velocity (dependent on shear stress) and the streamline [3]. During the experiments pictures were taken every 30 seconds.…”

“…In effect of the progress in computer simulations and increasing availability of Computer Fluid Dynamics (CFD) made it possible to use numerical simulation in EWE since the late nineties [3,9,10]. Research methods of numerical simulation allow to analyze many variants of building shape and position in short periods of time.…”

“…Such examples as: freestanding solids [13][14][15][16], regular alignment of solids [3,17], the space between the two walls showing the street model [18], are often referred. However publications concerning more complex geometric structures, which take into account the surrounding development and as such are closer to the real problems met in architectural design, are relatively rare [5,19,20].…”

“…This branch allows to explore and consequently to optimize airflow around buildings and urban structures [1,2]. Microclimate phenomena associated with the airflow around buildings have become of particular interest in the recent years [3][4][5][6]. Nowadays quality requirements concerning microclimate conditions (proper ventilation, elimination of rapid air movement in pedestrian area, protection against noise and cooling caused by the wind, reduction of deposition odors and dirt accumulation) [7] imply the need for aerodynamic testing in the initial phase of design process, where decisions concerning shapes of the objects are made.…”

“…Research methods of numerical simulation allow to analyze many variants of building shape and position in short periods of time. Although some recommendations and practice guidelines for such studies are available in literature [11,12], they require high expertise and a creative approach to each facility and pose a scientific challenge [2][3][4].…”