Effects of openings on the wind–sound environment in the traditional residential streets in a severe cold city of China

Abstract

The streets in the traditional residential areas of severe cold cities in China often have openings leading to enclosed courtyards. These openings connect the street to the courtyard space, which affects the physical environment of the residential streets. This paper uses field measurements and numerical simulation to study the wind–sound environment in the street, comparing and analysing the effects of the existence, size and form of openings on the wind–sound environment in the street. The results indicate that both the average wind velocity and sound pressure level have some degree of reduction around the opening, with the difference of wind velocity reaching 1.0 m/s and the difference in sound pressure level reaching 0.5–1.6 dB. Additionally, the T30 changes from 0.2 s to 0.4 s around the opening, while the average T30 in the street also varies. Increasing the width of the opening by 1 m increases the influential range of the opening on the sound environment by 0.5–4 m. In contrast, the width of the opening has little effect on the sound pressure level and the T30. Compared with an entrance of the same width, a gap intensifies the fluctuation of the local wind velocity and causes the average T30 to reduce by 0.3 s. The results of this paper lay a data foundation for further studies on the optimized design of the physical environment in enclosed residential areas.