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Simulation study of the influence of different urban canyons element on the canyon thermal environment

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Abstract

The heat island effect is an important issue for large cities, especially those located in hot and moist climates. The phenomenon is more severe in urban canyons because surrounding high-rise buildings allow little ventilation and dissipation of heat caused by traffic. The primary goal of the present study is to investigate the thermal environment of a major street in Osaka by intensive measurement during the summer of 2006. Osaka is the second largest city in Japan and suffers from the most severe heat island effect. In addition, several fundamental renovations and a composite renovation for the improvement of thermal environment in the urban canyon are proposed, and the efficacies of these measures are verified by computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulation. It was found that by modifying the heights of buildings along the street and the ground surface materials and increasing the quantity of vegetation, the thermal environment can be improved by a 2.0°C. reduction in standard new effective temperature (SET*) at maximum.

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Abbreviations

a :

density of leaf area (m2/m3)(=0.4)

C d :

coefficient of resistance (=0.5)

C p :

specific heat of air (J/kg·K)

E s :

transpiration rate (kg/m2·s)

f a :

partial pressure of water vapor (kPa)

f s :

partial pressure of saturated water vapor (kPa)

g i :

acceleration (m/s2)

K :

coefficient of heat conduction (J/m·s·K)

lE :

absorption of heat (W/m2)

L :

road width (m)

N i :

traffic rate (number of cars/s)

P :

air pressure (N/m2)

\( \dot q \) :

heat generation (J/m3·s)

q b :

specific heat generation of a building type (W/m2)

q ci :

heat dissipation rate for car types (J/m)

Q b :

heat generation from a building (W/m2)

Q c :

heat release from traffic (W/m2)

S b :

total floor area of a building (m2)

S :

area of heat exhaust (m2)

t :

time (s)

T :

air temperature (K)

T 0 :

reference temperature (K)

u i :

velocity (m/s)

x i :

space coordinate (m)

α w :

water vapor transfer coefficient conductivity (kg/m2·s·kPa)

β>:

evaporation efficiency

ε>:

dissipation rate of turbulence (m2/s3)

η>:

ratio of vegetation coverage

κ>:

turbulent energy (m2/s2)

μ>:

coefficient of viscosity (kg/m·s)

ρ>:

density of air (kg/m3)(=1.176)

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Obayashi Corporation, Shinagawa Intercity Tower, Minato-ku, Tokyo, Japan

    Naoko Yamaoka

  2. Department of Urban and Environmental Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Kyoto University, Nishigyo-ku, Kyoto, Japan

    Harunori Yoshida & Takuma Koga

  3. Takenaka Corporation, Chuo-ku, Osaka, Japan

    Mitsuo Tanabe

  4. Taisei Corporation, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo, Japan

    Michiko Yamashita

Authors
  1. Naoko Yamaoka
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  2. Harunori Yoshida
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  3. Mitsuo Tanabe
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  4. Michiko Yamashita
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  5. Takuma Koga
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Harunori Yoshida.

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Yamaoka, N., Yoshida, H., Tanabe, M. et al. Simulation study of the influence of different urban canyons element on the canyon thermal environment. Build. Simul. 1, 118–128 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12273-008-8111-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12273-008-8111-2

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