Abstract

Here we evaluated the effect of using water retentive pavement or WRP made from fly ash as material for main street in a real city block. We coupled computational fluid dynamics and pavement transport (CFD-PT) model to examine energy balance in the building canopies and ground surface. Two cases of 24 h unsteady analysis were simulated: case 1 where asphalt was used as the pavement material of all ground surfaces and case 2 where WRP was used as main street material. We aim to (1) predict diurnal variation in air temperature, wind speed, ground surface temperature and water content; and (2) compare ground surface energy fluxes. Using the coupled CFD-PT model it was proven that WRP as pavement material for main street can cause a decrease in ground surface temperature. The most significant decrease occurred at 1200 JST when solar radiation was most intense, surface temperature decreased by <TEX>$13.8^{\circ}C$</TEX>. This surface temperature decrease also led to cooling of air temperature at 1.5 m above street surface. During this time, air temperature in case 2 decreased by <TEX>$0.28^{\circ}C$</TEX>. As the radiation weakens from 1600 JST to 2000 JST, evaporative cooling had also been minimal. Shadow effect, higher albedo and lower thermal conductivity of WRP also contributed to surface temperature decrease. The cooling of ground surface eventually led to air temperature decrease. The degree of air temperature decrease was proportional to the surface temperature decrease. In terms of energy balance, WRP caused a maximum increase in latent heat flux by up to <TEX>$255W/m^2$</TEX> and a decrease in sensible heat flux by up to <TEX>$465W/m^2$</TEX>.

Highlights

  • The warming of urban surfaces such as streets and buildings has been proven to be one major contribut­ ing factor to urban heat island or UHI phenomenon (Golden and Kaloush, 2006; Asaeda and Ca, 2000; Asaede and Ca, 1996; Asaede and Ca, 1993; Oke, 1982)

  • Using the coupled computational fluid dynamics and pavement transport (CFD-PT) model it was proven that WRP as pavement material for main street can cause a decrease in ground surface temperature

  • This cooling is primarily due to the evaporation of water from WRP surfaces thereby causing an increase in latent heat flux

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Summary

Introduction

The warming of urban surfaces such as streets and buildings has been proven to be one major contribut­ ing factor to urban heat island or UHI phenomenon (Golden and Kaloush, 2006; Asaeda and Ca, 2000; Asaede and Ca, 1996; Asaede and Ca, 1993; Oke, 1982). Nayakama and Fujita (2010) coupled the National Institute for Environmental Stud­ ies (NIES) Integrated Catchment-based Eco-hydrology model with urban canopy model to evaluate the role of retentive pavements in UHI mitigation. They found out that air temperature above the WRP is much lower than the air temperature above lawn or building roof­ top. Georgakis et al (2014) evaluated cool pavements and roof coated with high reflection paints as UHI miti­ gation They used computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model to calculate surface temperature and air temper­ ature within the urban canyon.

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