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The role of materials selection in the urban heat island effect in dry mid-latitude climates

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Abstract

This work investigates the role of materials selected for different urban surfaces (e.g. on building walls, roofs and pavements) in the intensity of the urban heat island (UHI) phenomenon. Three archetypal street-canyon geometries are considered, reflecting two-dimensional canyon arrays with frontal packing densities (λf) of 0.5, 0.25 and 0.125 under direct solar radiation and ground heating. The impact of radiative heat transfer in the urban environment is examined for each of the different built packing densities. A number of extreme heat scenarios were modelled in order to mimic conditions often found at low- to mid-latitudes dry climates. The investigation involved a suite of different computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations using the Reynolds-Averaged Navier–Stokes equations for mass and momentum coupled with the energy equation as well as using the standard k-ε turbulence model. Results indicate that a higher rate of ventilation within the street canyon is observed in areas with sparser built packing density. However, such higher ventilation rates were not necessarily found to be linked with lower temperatures within the canyon; this is because such sparser geometries are associated with higher heat transfer from the wider surfaces of road material under the condition of direct solar radiation and ground heating. Sparser canyon arrays corresponding to wider asphalt street roads in particular, have been found to yield substantially higher air temperatures. Additional simulations indicated that replacing asphalt road surfaces in streets with concrete roads (of different albedo or emissivity characteristics) can lead up to a ~5 °C reduction in the canyon air temperature in dry climates. It is finally concluded that an optimized selection of materials in the urban infrastructure design can lead to a more effective mitigation of the UHI phenomenon than the optimisation of the built packing density.

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Abbreviations

Af :

Windward (frontal) area of the building array

AT :

Building lot area

cpm :

Specific heat capacity (J kg−1 K−1)

d:

Displacement height (m)

H:

Street canyon height (m)

k:

Turbulent kinetic energy per unit mass (m2 s−2)

K :

Thermal conductivity (W m−1 K−1)

K t :

Turbulent thermal conductivity (W m−1 K−1)

Pr:

Prandtl number (-)

Re:

Reynolds number (-)

Ri:

Richardson number (-)

TA :

Ambient air temperature (K)

Tref :

Ambient (inlet) reference air temperature (K)

TS, Thot :

Street surface temperature (K)

Tth.comfort :

Air temperature for thermal comfort (=298 K)

T:

Computed temperature (K)

u* :

Friction velocity (m s−1)

Uambient :

Ambient air velocity magnitude (m s−1)

Ui :

Mean streamwise and vertical velocity (m s−1)

U+ :

Dimensionless velocity magnitude (=U/Uambient)

W:

Street canyon width (m)

z o :

Surface roughness length (m)

δ:

Boundary layer height (m)

ε:

Emissivity (-)

ε :

Dissipation rate of turbulent kinetic energy (m2 s−3)

κ:

Von Karman constant (0.4)

λf :

Frontal packing density (−)

ρ:

Density (kg m−3)

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Acknowledgements

The authors wish to acknowledge the anonymous reviewers for comments and suggestions that helped to improve substantially the manuscript. Part of this work was funded by the Cyprus Research Promotion Foundation under the contracts ΑΕΙΦΟΡΙΑ/ΑΣΤΙ/0308(ΒΙΕ) as well as ΑΝΑΒΑΘΜΙΣΗ/ΠΑΓΙΟ/0308/33. Drs. Prashant Kumar and Marina Neophytou also acknowledge the funding support received from the Erasmus Exchange programme that allowed them to interact and develop this article collaboratively. MKAN also acknowledges Mr Nestoras Antoniou for assistance in the post-processing and figure production during the revision process.

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Author notes

  1. Konstantinos Marakkos

    Present address: The Cyprus Institute, Energy and Environment and Water Research Center, Nicosia, Cyprus

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Environmental Fluid Mechanics Laboratory, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Cyprus, 1 Panepistimiou Ave, 2109, Nicosia, Cyprus

    Androula Kakoniti, Gregoria Georgiou, Konstantinos Marakkos & Marina K.-A. Neophytou

  2. Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Faculty of Engineering and Physical Sciences (FEPS), University of Surrey, Guildford, GU2 7XH, UK

    Prashant Kumar

  3. Environmental Flow (EnFlo) Research Centre, FEPS, University of Surrey, Guildford, GU2 7XH, UK

    Prashant Kumar

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  1. Androula Kakoniti
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  5. Marina K.-A. Neophytou
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Correspondence to Marina K.-A. Neophytou.

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Kakoniti, A., Georgiou, G., Marakkos, K. et al. The role of materials selection in the urban heat island effect in dry mid-latitude climates. Environ Fluid Mech 16, 347–371 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10652-015-9426-z

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