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Urban Weather Modelling
NCAS Collaboration
Fig1: Ariel photograph of Marylebone in London (Google Earth image)
Fig2: Polyhedral mesh at ground level
CD-adapco and NCAS (2006-2013) have agreed exclusive partnership terms that will lead to an urban scale weather modelling code. The prediction methodology, using the UK Met Office's operational Universal Modelling code to drive the localized CFD models and building and street-level scales, is hoped to enable five-day forecasting of urban air quality, dispersion and heat transfer.
A detailed assessment of three major commercial computational fluid dynamics (CFD) codes has led to indications that proper use of Large Eddy Simulation (LES) capabilities leads to essentially identical results from all three codes and is a feasible approach. NCAS teams, initially at the Universities of Southampton and Reading, led by Professors Ian Castro and Stephen Belcher, respectively, are now concentrating on further exploitation of CD-adapco's modelling techniques.
Professor Castro, who led the evaluation of commercial software at Southampton, summarizes the system as "... very user-friendly for complex geometries, and generating polyhedral meshes, which we consider essential for general urban topologies. There is a growing need to be able to simulate flows in urban areas for applications ranging from pedestrian comfort and wind loading of buildings to dispersion of traffic pollutants and terrorist releases. This new partnership promises the tools we need to tackle these issues."
Case Studies
Researchers at Southampton University working under the direction of Prof. Ian Casto have used Large Eddy Simulation (LES) to investigate a variety of wind effect on the Urban Environment. Developments within the NCAS and CD-adapco partnership [ref (1)] were presented at the NCAS Conference in Bristol, December 2008.
Dr. Zheng-Tong Xie compares his LES predictions against measurements taken in the DAPPLE project [ref (2)] on a 1:200 scale model of Marylebone Road, London. Download a PDF of: " Urban Modelling"
Dr. Bharathi Boppana commences her investigation of heat-transfer in Urban Flows by assessing the dispersion of passive scalars, concentrating first on the quantifying the ground resolution requirements in the LES of a staggered cube arrangement. Download a PDF of: "LES Scalar Dispersion"
Dr. Jean Claus is conducting new experiments on the staggered cubes array against which to validate LES modelling of wind direction effects on Urban Flows. Download a PDF of: " Wind Direction Effects"
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