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Momentum and Heat Transfer over Urban-like Surfaces

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Abstract

Momentum and heat transfer was examined for the urban-like surfaces used within the Comprehensive Outdoor Scale MOdel (COSMO) experiments. Simultaneous and comparative meteorological measurements were made over a pair of scale models with different block geometries. These data were analyzed to investigate the influence of height variations, obstacle elongation, and packing density, λ p , of blocks on the aerodynamic properties. In addition, the robustness of theoretical expressions of bulk transfer coefficients for momentum and heat with respect to geometric parameters was examined. Our analyses showed: (1) the theoretical framework for the bulk transfer coefficient for momentum, C m , and that for heat, C h , was applicable for homogeneous building arrays, (2) the sensitivity of C h to the surface geometry was smaller than that of C m , (3) the transfer coefficients were increased by variations of block heights, but not by elongation of blocks, (4) first-order approximations of C m and C h for an array of blocks with two different heights can be made by applying simple theoretical assumptions to include the effects of height variation, and (5) variations of block heights increased the momentum flux significantly, but caused little change in the sensible heat flux. This can be explained by the feedback mechanism of aerodynamic– thermal interaction; aerodynamic mixing decreased both the advective velocity and the vertical temperature gradient.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of International Development Engineering, Tokyo Institute of Technology, Tokyo, Japan

    Manabu Kanda & Takanobu Moriizumi

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  1. Manabu Kanda
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  2. Takanobu Moriizumi
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Correspondence to Manabu Kanda.

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Kanda, M., Moriizumi, T. Momentum and Heat Transfer over Urban-like Surfaces. Boundary-Layer Meteorol 131, 385–401 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10546-009-9381-7

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