Prediction of wind environment and thermal comfort at pedestrian level in urban area

This paper reviews the recent developments in CWE research for predicting the pedestrian level wind and thermal environments in urban areas, primarily achieved by the researchers in the field of environmental engineering in Japan. First the progress in turbulence models in the last decade and in their applications to the problems related to wind climate is briefly reviewed, and the results of Architectural Institute of Japan (AIJ) collaborative project in cross comparisons of CFD results of wind environments are presented. Next, recent achievements in the field of modeling canopy flows for reproducing the aerodynamic and thermal effects of trees, buildings and automobiles are outlined. Examples of numerical results obtained using tree and vehicle canopy models are shown to demonstrate the significant effects of stationary and non-stationary subgrid scale flow obstacles on turbulent flowfield within street canyons. (c) 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.