Article Information
Impact of Aspect Ratio and Solar Heating on Street Conyn Air Temperature

Keywords: Surface Temperature, Turbulence, Thermal Comfort, CFD.

Mehran University Research Journal of Engineering & Technology

Volume 30 ,  Issue 1

Rizwan  Ahmed  Memon,Abdul  Haque  Tunio,Kanya   Lal

Abstract

The results obtained from RNG (Re-Normalization Group) version of k-? turbulence model are reported in this study. The model is adopted to elucidate the impact of different building aspect ratios (i.e., ratio of building-height-to-street-canyon-width) and solar heating on temperatures in street canyon. The validation of Navier-Stokes and energy transport equations showed that the model prediction for air-temperature and ambient wind provides reasonable accuracy. The model was applied on AR (Aspect Ratios) one to eight and surface temperature difference (??s-a) of 2 -8. Notably, air-temperatures were higher in high AR street canyons in particular on the leeward side of the street canyon. Further investigation showed that the difference between the air-temperature of high and low AR street canyons ( AR) was positive and high with higher ??s-a. Conversely, the AR become negative and low gradually with lower values of ??s-a. These results could be very beneficial for the city and regional planners, civil engineers and HVAC experts who design street canyons and strive for human thermal comfort with minimum possible energy requirements.