Title: New power law inflow boundary conditions for street scale modelling

Authors: Vasilis Akylas; Fotios Barmpas; Nicolas Moussiopoulos; George Tsegas

Addresses: Laboratory of Heat Transfer and Environmental Engineering, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece ' Laboratory of Heat Transfer and Environmental Engineering, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece ' Laboratory of Heat Transfer and Environmental Engineering, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece ' Laboratory of Heat Transfer and Environmental Engineering, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece

Abstract: In street scale numerical simulations utilising computational fluid dynamics (CFD) models, normally the inlet flow should preserve the horizontal homogeneity upstream and downstream of the area where the resolved obstacles reside. Hence, the vertical profiles of the main atmospheric flow quantities must comply with the roughness characteristics of the ground surface. Horizontally homogenous boundary conditions do not normally agree with field measurements while at the same time the profiles obtained by measurements do not preserve the homogeneity of the flow. As a result, in recent years alternative sets of boundary conditions have been proposed in order to bridge the gap between real life vertical profiles of the atmospheric boundary layer and those applied as input boundary conditions for modelling purposes. In the present study, the homogeneity of the boundary conditions is addressed by applying the power law for the mean wind speed to obtain the appropriate vertical profiles.

Keywords: atmospheric boundary layer; ABL; computational fluid dynamics; CFD; boundary conditions; microscale; power law; street scale modelling.

DOI: 10.1504/IJEP.2017.089407

International Journal of Environment and Pollution, 2017 Vol.62 No.2/3/4, pp.214 - 235

Received: 22 Aug 2016
Accepted: 24 Jan 2017

Published online: 23 Jan 2018 *

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