Abstract
Many high-rise buildings have semi-enclosed landscaped spaces, which act as design elements to improve the social and environmental aspects of the building. Designs such as skygardens are open to outdoor airflow and allow occupants to observe the city skyline from a height. Due to their often high location, they are subjected to strong wind speeds and extreme environmental conditions. The current study investigates the effects of three common wind buffers (railing, hedges, and trees) located at a height of 92 m on the performance of a skygarden, in terms of occupants’ wind comfort. Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations were carried out using the realisable k-epsilon method, where the vegetation was modelled as a porous zone with cooling capacity. The computational modelling of the high-rise building and vegetation were validated using previous works. The quality class (QC) of the Lawson comfort criteria was used for the evaluation of the wind comfort across the skygarden. The results indicate that, although the three wind buffers offer varying levels of wind reduction in the skygarden, the overall wind conditions generated are suitable for occupancy. Furthermore, vegetation is also able to offer slight temperature reductions in its wake. The right combination and dimension of these elements can greatly assist in generating aero-thermal comfort across skygardens.
Highlights
Introduction and Literature ReviewRapid urbanisation, along with the transformation of the built environment results in the intensification of the urban heat island (UHI) effect [1] and an increase in global energy demand [2,3]
The location and configuration of the skygarden have a major impact on the local wind speeds within the building [29,30] and the wind speeds are usually higher at the central location of the within the building [29,30] and the wind speeds are usually higher at the central location of the skygarden
Recirculation zones are observed in the wake of of the building, while airflow, from the skygarden, is seen to move upwards after exiting in the rear the building, while airflow, from the skygarden, is seen to move upwards after exiting in the rear (Figure 10)
Summary
Introduction and Literature ReviewRapid urbanisation, along with the transformation of the built environment results in the intensification of the urban heat island (UHI) effect [1] and an increase in global energy demand [2,3]. The number of high-rise buildings is projected to increase, growing with the increasing demand for office spaces and housing within cities [5] This increasing urbanisation results in an imbalance between the indoor and outdoor space, which can affect the occupants’ well-being. Green spaces are large spatial areas of vegetation which can improve the local thermal conditions by enabling shading and evaporative cooling to lower air temperatures [10,11]. It acts as a filter which reduces pollutants, dust, and other harmful particles within highly polluted dense city areas to improve outdoor air quality.
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