The Effects of Orientation and Width of Space Between Buildings on Ventilation of High-Rise Areas

Abstract

Excessive heat in the high-rise urban fabric has contributed to pedestrian and occupants' discomfort. Establishing wind circulation in space with an environmentally compatible and optimal configuration is necessary to improve comfort in this region. The study benefits from field measurements and experimental validation of CFD simulation to investigate the effective parameters that affect wind speed. The master plan has proposed decentralized and limited high-rise construction to prevent the horizontal growth of Babolsar city. Meanwhile, the demand for high-rise buildings is high in the city. Therefore, altitude density (height factor) is considered as a constant factor. The buildings' orientation and enclosure based on the passages' width have opposite reactions in the direction of the prevailing wind. The correlation between the orientation and the enclosure with the wind speed are the values of 0.504 and 0.2226 respectively, which have the highest correlation among other parameters. The changes have been made in the building orientation factor in the dominant wind direction by creating permeability as well as creating low enclosure in the paths and empty spaces perpendicular to the dominant wind (W’= 3W, E’ = 0.33E). These strategies have finally improved wind velocity and created wind circulation in urban block spaces. Finally, according to the data analysis for Climate compatible in humid areas and the optimal behavior of wind flow for proper urban ventilation, an improved layout for future developments will be presented.

Keywords

• high-rise building
• urban microclimate
• urban ventilation
• wind flow