Evaluation of pedestrian winds in urban area by numerical approach

A large eddy simulation CFD model based on the weakly compressible flow equations has been used to simulate the pedestrian wind fields around urban area. This paper presents some practical examples of the CFD model applications to environmental wind evaluation. Since numerical model can provide the detailed wind flow data at every grid points and every time step at different wind conditions, it has a great advantage over wind tunnel test to accurately evaluate the wind effects on pedestrian and other environmental issues. Furthermore, advanced computing technology has made the numerical modeling become fast and cheap. Currently, a typical case of the examples can be completed within 2-3 weeks. It is believed that the CFD method is now a feasible tool of wind engineering. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.