Abstract
The convective heat transfer coefficient (CHTC) of an urban canopy is a crucial parameter for estimating the turbulent heat flux in an urban area. We compared recent experimental research on the CHTC and the mass transfer coefficient (MTC) of urban surfaces in the field and in wind tunnels. Our findings are summarised as follows.
-
(1)
In full-scale measurements on horizontal building roofs, the CHTC is sensitive to the height of the reference wind speed for heights below 1.5 m but is relatively independent of roof size.
-
(2)
In full-scale measurements of vertical building walls, the dependence of the CHTC on wind speed is significantly influenced by the choice of the measurement position and wall size. The CHTC of the edge of the building wall is much higher than that near the centre.
-
(3)
In spite of differences of the measurement methods, wind-tunnel experiments of the MTC give similar relations between the ratio of street width to canopy height in the urban canopy. Moreover, this relationship is consistent with known properties of the flow regime of an urban canopy.
-
(4)
Full-scale measurements on roofs result in a non-dimensional CHTC several tens of times greater than that in scale-model experiments with the same Reynolds number.
Although there is some agreement in the measured values, our overall understanding of the CHTC remains too low for accurate modelling of urban climate.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
D. A. Aliaga J. P. Lamb D. E. Klein (1994) ArticleTitle‘Convective Heat Transfer Distributions Over Plates with Square Ribs from Infrared Thermography Measurements’ Int. J. Heat Mass Transfer 37 363–374 Occurrence Handle10.1016/0017-9310(94)90071-X
Y. Ashie V. T. Ca T. Asaeda (1999) ArticleTitle‘Building Canopy Model for the Analysis of Urban Climate’ J. Wind Eng. Ind. Aerodyn. 81 237–248 Occurrence Handle10.1016/S0167-6105(99)00020-3
J. F. Barlow I. N. Harman S. E. Belcher (2004) ArticleTitle‘Scalar Fluxes from Urban Street Canyons Part 1: Laboratory Simulation’ Boundary-Layer Meteorol. 113 369–385
Brown, M. J., Lawson, R. E. Jr., DeCroix, D. S., and Lee, R. L.: 2000, ‘Mean Flow and Turbulence Measurements around a 2-D Array of Buildings in a Wind Tunnel’, 11th Joint Conference on the Applications of Air Pollution Meteorology with the AWMA, Long Beach, CA, January 9–14, 2000, American Meteorological Society, Boston, MA, pp. 35–40.
H. Cheng I. P. Castro (2002) ArticleTitle‘Near Wall Flow over Urban-like Roughness’ Boundary-Layer Meteorol. 104 229–259 Occurrence Handle10.1023/A:1016060103448
Chyu, M. K. and Goldstein, R. J.: 1986, ‘Local Mass Transfer in Rectangular Cavities with Separated Turbulent Flow’, Eighth International Heat Transfer Conference, Vol. 3, pp. 1065–1070.
R. D. Clear L. Cartland F. C. Winkelmann (2003) ArticleTitle‘An Empirical Correlation for the Outside Convective Air-Film Coefficient for Horizontal Roofs’ Energy Buildings 35 797–811
R. J. Cole N. S. Sturrock (1977) ArticleTitle‘The Convective Heat Exchange at the External Surface of Buildings’ Building Environ. 12 207–214
A. Hagishima J. Tanimoto (2003) ArticleTitle‘Field Measurements for Estimating the Convective Heat Transfer Coefficient at Building Surfaces’ Building Environ. 38 873–881
N. Ito K. Kimura J. Oka (1972) ArticleTitle‘A Field Experiment Study on the Convective Heat Transfer Coefficient on Exterior Surface of a Building’ ASHRAE Trans. 78 184–191
H. A. Johnson M. W. Rubesin (1949) ArticleTitle‘Aerodynamic Heating and Convective Heat Transfer – Summary of Literature Survey’ Trans. ASME 71 IssueID5 447–456
Kanda, M.: 2005, ‘Large Eddy Simulations on How Surface Geometry of Building Array Affects Turbulent Flow Structures’, Boundary-Layer Meteorol. in press.
Kanda, M. and Katsuyama, S.: 2002, ‘Canopy Albedos and Representative Temperatures for Regularly Distributed Rectangular Obstacles’, Proc. of 4th Symposium on the Urban Environment, Norfolk, VA, May 19–24, 2002. American Meteorological Society, Boston, MA, pp. 94–957.
M. Kanda R. Moriwaki F. Kasamatsu (2004) ArticleTitle‘Large Eddy simulation of Turbulent Organized Structure Within and Above Explicitly Resolved Cubic Arrays’ Boundary-Layer Meteorol. 112 343–368 Occurrence Handle10.1023/B:BOUN.0000027909.40439.7c
S. Kobayashi (1994) ArticleTitle‘Convective Heat Transfer Characteristics of Rooftop Surface in Summer’ J. Arch. Plan Environ. Eng. 465 11–17
S. Kobayashi K. Morikawa (2000) ArticleTitle‘Convective Heat Transfer Coefficient of Rooftop Surface in Downward Heat Flow’ J. Arch. Plan Environ. Eng. 536 21–27
H. Kondo F. Liu (1998) ArticleTitle‘A Study on the Urban Thermal Environment Obtained through One-Dimensional Urban Canopy Model’ J. Jpn. Soc. Atmos. Environ. 33 IssueID3 179–192
H. Kusaka H. Kondo Y. Kikegawa F. Kimura (2001) ArticleTitle‘A Simple Single-Layer Urban Canopy Model For Atmospheric Models: Comparison With Multi-Layer And Slab Models’ Boundary-Layer Meteorol. 101 329–358 Occurrence Handle10.1023/A:1019207923078
D. L. Loveday A. H. Taki (1996) ArticleTitle‘Convective Heat Transfer Coefficients at a Plane Surface on a Full-Scale Building Façade’ Int. J. Heat Mass. Transfer 39 1729–1742 Occurrence Handle10.1016/0017-9310(95)00268-5
V. Masson (2000) ArticleTitle‘A Physically-Based Scheme For The Urban Energy Budget In Atmospheric Models’ Boundary-Layer Meteorol. 94 357–397 Occurrence Handle10.1023/A:1002463829265
W. H. McAdams (1954) ‘Heat Transmission’ EditionNumber3 McGraw Hill New York 532
E. R. Meinders T. H. Meer ParticleVan Der K. Hanjalic (1998) ArticleTitle‘Local Convective Heat Transfer from an Array of Wall-Mounted Cubes’ Int. J. Heat Mass Transfer 41 335–346 Occurrence Handle10.1016/S0017-9310(97)00148-8
K. Narita T. Sekine T. Tokuoka (1986) ArticleTitle‘An Experimental Study on the Effects of Air Flow around Buildings on Evaporation in Urban Area Part 2’ J. Arch. Plan Environ. Eng. 366 1–10
K. Narita Y. Nonomura A. Ogasa (1997) ArticleTitle‘Real Scale Measurement of Convective Mass Transfer Coefficient at Window in Natural Wind, Study on Convective Heat Transfer Coefficient at Outside Building Wall in an Urban Area Part 1’ J. Arch. Plan Environ. Eng. 491 49–56
K. Narita Y. Nonomura A. Ogasa (2000) ArticleTitle‘Wind Tunnel Test on Convective Mass Transfer Coefficient on Urban Surface, Study on Convective Heat Transfer Coefficient on outside Building Wall in an Urban Area Part 2’ J. Arch. Plan Environ. Eng. 527 69–76
T. R. Oke (1987) ‘Boundary Layer Climates’ EditionNumber2 Methuen London New York 266–268
S. Sharples (1984) ArticleTitle‘Full-Scale Measurements of Convective Energy Losses from Exterior Building Surfaces’ Building Environ. 19 31–39
Y. Urano T. Watanabe (1983) ArticleTitle‘Heat Balance at a Roof Surface and Time-Varying Effect of the Film Coefficient on its Thermal Response’ J. Arch. Plan. Environ. Eng. 325 93–103
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Hagishima, A., Tanimoto, J. & Narita, Ki. Intercomparisons of Experimental Convective Heat Transfer Coefficients and Mass Transfer Coefficients of Urban Surfaces. Boundary-Layer Meteorol 117, 551–576 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10546-005-2078-7
Accepted:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10546-005-2078-7