Synergetic urban microclimate and energy simulation parametric workflow

Jonathan Natanian,Daniela Maiullari,Thomas Auer,Abraham Yezioro

doi:10.1088/1742-6596/1343/1/012006

Abstract

Although the interrelations between urban microclimates and energy demand have been acknowledged, few workflows integrate microclimatic boundary conditions to predict energy demand in parametric morphological studies. This paper helps bridge this gap by introducing a novel workflow which brings together energy and microclimatic modelling for a synergetic assessment at the block scale. The interrelation between form, energy and urban microclimatic conditions is explored here in the climatic context of Tel Aviv by coupling Envimet and EnergyPlus. The potential of this coupling is explored in three different block typologies, each tested for four different density scenarios focusing on the cooling demand on a typical hot day. Results show the substantial increase of as high as 50% in cooling demand when the microclimatic weather data is taken into account and indicate the potential to capitalize on new computational tools which allow to quantify the interrelations between urban form, microclimate and energy performance more accurately.

Highlights

Results show the substantial increase of as high as 50% in cooling demand when the microclimatic weather data is taken into account and indicate the potential to capitalize on new computational tools which allow to quantify the interrelations between urban form, microclimate and energy performance more accurately
The decrease in cooling demand in higher densities in both scatter and highrise typologies is driven by the increase in self-shading of the urban environment. This trend is significantly more distinct when using the ENVI-met microclimatic weather file in comparison to the rural EPW; for the same cases, the rise in night-time temperatures in higher density highlights a phenomenon of heat storage in the urban canyons which might increase the magnitude of Urban Heat Island (UHI), a tradeoff which should be further studied in longer time segments
This paper demonstrated a new parametric method in which air temperature, due-point temperature and relative humidity outputs from ENVI-met, were automatically used to account for the UHI effect in an energy evaluation of 12 different typology and density scenarios

Summary

Introduction

According to the United Nations, cities consume close to 70% of the world’s energy and account for more than 70% of global greenhouse gas emissions [1]. Results show the substantial increase of as high as 50% in cooling demand when the microclimatic weather data is taken into account and indicate the potential to capitalize on new computational tools which allow to quantify the interrelations between urban form, microclimate and energy performance more accurately.

Results

Conclusion