Impact of Urban Spaces and Building Height on Airflow Distribution: Wind Tunnel Testing of an Urban Setting Prototype in Abu-Dhabi City

Abstract

This paper investigates the effect of changing design parameters such as building height, urban space width, and building cluster arrangement on airflow in typical urban settings in Abu-Dhabi. It focuses on the impact of these parameters on airflow pathlines and velocity and analyzes the results with regard to thermal comfort in outdoor urban spaces. The study concludes with some design guideline and recommendations such as the following: low-rise buildings in the urban context should face the windward direction to reduce wind shadow effect; staggered arrangements of buildings in urban context provide more effective passive cooling design than parallel arrangement because of its potential to cool building structures at night by natural convection and to reduce high levels of humidity.