The Effects of Residential Area Building Layout on Outdoor Wind Environment at the Pedestrian Level in Severe Cold Regions of China

Hong Jin,Zheming Liu,Jian Kang,Yumeng Jin,Jing Liu

doi:10.3390/su9122310

Hong Jin, Zheming Liu + Show 3 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3390/su9122310

Copy DOI

Abstract

In recent years, there has been a frequent occurrence of extremely cold conditions which has had a serious impact on the life of residents of buildings in various locations around the world. However, there have only been a very limited number of studies on the effects of residential area building layout on the winter wind environments, which led to a lack of quantitative guidance for residential area planning in severely cold regions. This study aims to reveal the relationship between (1) the residential areas’ building density, floor area ratio, wind projection angle, average building height, and relative position of high-rise buildings, and; (2) the mean wind velocity ratio at pedestrian level in severe cold regions. In this study, the pedestrian-level outdoor wind environments in 24 typical residential areas of Harbin, China, are simulated using ENVI-met software. The results show that the relative position of high-rise buildings in multi-high-level mixed residential areas has little influence on the mean wind velocity ratio, and the maximum difference is 0.04. The factors of building layout have little influence on the mean wind velocity ratio of multistory residential areas. However, a significant linear correlation exists between the mean wind velocity ratio of high-rise residential areas and both the building density and wind projection angle. The prediction model of the mean pedestrian-level wind velocity ratio was then established.

Highlights

In recent years, the frequent occurrence of extreme cold weather has increased the energy consumption of building heating, and seriously affected people’s work, life and physical health [1]
This study focuses on analyzing the outdoor wind environment of residential areas in severe cold regions, so there is no excessive discussion about air temperature
In this study a quantitative analysis is conducted on the relation of the multistory and high-rise residential areas’ building density, floor area ratio, average building height, wind projection angle, and the relative location of high-rise buildings within multi-high-level mixed residential areas with the mean wind velocity ratio at pedestrian level

Summary

Introduction

The frequent occurrence of extreme cold weather has increased the energy consumption of building heating, and seriously affected people’s work, life and physical health [1]. The meteorological factors affecting outdoor human thermal sensation include wind velocity, air temperature and relative humidity, and so forth, of which the wind velocity plays a dominant role [7]. Several researchers, through field measurement, wind tunnel tests and numerical simulation, have studied the relationship between the building layout factors (building density, floor area ratio, building height, building orientation, sky-view factor, etc.) and the outdoor wind environment, and obtained many corresponding results [12,13,14]

Objectives

Methods

Results

Conclusion