Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Large-eddy simulation of turbulent flow in a densely built-up urban area

  • Original Article
  • Published:
Environmental Fluid Mechanics Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Turbulent flow in a densely built-up area of Seoul, South Korea, is numerically investigated using the parallelized large-eddy simulation model. Based on the analysis of streamwise velocity and column-averaged vertical turbulent momentum flux, three areas of interest are selected: a downstream area of an apartment complex, an area behind high-rise buildings, and a park area. In the downstream area of the apartment complex, a large wake develops and a region of strong vertical turbulent momentum flux appears above the wake. At the height of maximum vertical turbulent momentum flux magnitude, all the four quadrant events occur in larger magnitude and contribute more to the vertical turbulent momentum transport than the averages in the main domain. In the area behind the high-rise buildings, fluctuating wakes and vortices are distinct flow structures around the top of the tallest building and updrafts induced by the flow structures appear as strong ejections just behind the high-rise buildings or farther downstream. While strong ejections are dominant at building-top heights, downdrafts along the windward walls of high-rise buildings are distinct below building-top heights and they induce high turbulent kinetic energy and winding flow around the high-rise buildings near the ground surface, transporting momentum downward and intermittently into nearby streets. In the park area located downstream in the main domain, turbulent eddies exist well above the ground surface, and the thickness of the interfacial region between low-speed air and high-speed air increases and complex turbulent flow appears in the interfacial region.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4
Fig. 5
Fig. 6
Fig. 7
Fig. 8
Fig. 9
Fig. 10

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Coceal O, Dobre A, Thomas TG (2007) Unsteady dynamics and organized structures from DNS over an idealized building canopy. Int J Climatol 27:1943–1953

    Article  Google Scholar 

  2. Cui Z, Cai XM, Baker CJ (2004) Large-eddy simulation of turbulent flow in a street canyon. Quart J R Meteor Soc 130:1373–1394

    Article  Google Scholar 

  3. Deardorff JW (1980) Stratocumulus-capped mixed layers derived from a three-dimensional model. Bound Layer Meteor 18:495–527

    Article  Google Scholar 

  4. Inagaki A, Kanda M (2010) Organized structure of active turbulence over an array of cubes within the logarithmic layer of atmospheric flow. Bound Layer Meteor 135:209–228

    Article  Google Scholar 

  5. Inagaki A, Castillo MCL, Yamashita Y, Kanda M, Takimoto H (2012) Large-eddy simulation of coherent flow structures within a cubical canopy. Bound Layer Meteor 142:207–222

    Article  Google Scholar 

  6. Kanda M, Moriwaki R, Kasamatsu F (2004) Large-eddy simulation of turbulent organized structures within and above explicitly resolved cube arrays. Bound Layer Meteor 112:343–368

    Article  Google Scholar 

  7. Kanda M (2006) Large-eddy simulations on the effects of surface geometry of building arrays on turbulent organized structures. Bound Layer Meteor 118:151–168

    Article  Google Scholar 

  8. Kataoka H, Mizuno M (2002) Numerical flow computation around aeroelastic 3D square cylinder using inflow turbulence. Wind Struct 5:379–392

    Article  Google Scholar 

  9. Letzel MO, Krane M, Raasch S (2008) High resolution urban large-eddy simulation studies from street canyon to neighbourhood scale. Atmos Environ 42:8770–8784

    Article  Google Scholar 

  10. Letzel MO, Helmke C, Ng E, An X, Lai A, Raasch S (2012) LES case study on pedestrian level ventilation in two neighbourhoods in Hong Kong. Meteor Z 21:575–589

    Article  Google Scholar 

  11. Louka P, Vachon G, Sini JF, Mestayer PG, Rosant JM (2002) Thermal effects on the airflow in a street canyon—Nantes’99 experimental results and model simulations. Water Air Soil Pollut F 2:351–364

    Article  Google Scholar 

  12. Lund TS, Wu X, Squires KD (1998) Generation of turbulent inflow data for spatially-developing boundary layer simulations. J Comput Phys 140:233–258

    Article  Google Scholar 

  13. Nakayama H, Takemi T, Nagai H (2011) LES analysis of the aerodynamic surface properties for turbulent flows over building arrays with various geometries. J Appl Meteor Climatol 50:1692–1712

    Article  Google Scholar 

  14. Nakayama H, Takemi T, Nagai H (2012) Large-eddy simulation of urban boundary-layer flows by generating turbulent inflows from mesoscale meteorological simulations. Atmos Sci Lett 13:180–186

    Article  Google Scholar 

  15. Park SB, Baik JJ, Raasch S, Letzel MO (2012) A large-eddy simulation study of thermal effects on turbulent flow and dispersion in and above a street canyon. J Appl Meteor Climatol 51:829–841

    Article  Google Scholar 

  16. Park SB, Baik JJ (2013) A large-eddy simulation study of thermal effects on turbulence coherent structures in and above a building array. J Appl Meteor Climatol 52:1348–1365

    Article  Google Scholar 

  17. Piacsek SA, Williams GP (1970) Conservation properties of convection difference schemes. J Comput Phys 6:392–405

    Article  Google Scholar 

  18. Raasch S, Schröter M (2001) PALM—a large-eddy simulation model performing on massively parallel computers. Meteor Z 10:363–372

    Article  Google Scholar 

  19. Raupach MR (1981) Conditional statistics of Reynolds stress in rough-wall and smooth-wall turbulent boundary layers. J Fluid Mech 108:363–382

    Article  Google Scholar 

  20. Raupach MR, Finnigan JJ, Brunet Y (1996) Coherent eddies and turbulence in vegetation canopies: the mixing-layer analogy. Bound Layer Meteor 78:351–382

    Article  Google Scholar 

  21. Rotach MW (1993) Turbulence close to a rough urban surface, part I: Reynolds stress. Bound Layer Meteor 65:1–28

    Article  Google Scholar 

  22. Watanabe T (2004) Large-eddy simulation of coherent turbulence structures associated with scalar ramps over plant canopies. Bound Layer Meteor 112:307–341

    Article  Google Scholar 

  23. Xie ZT, Coceal O, Castro IP (2008) Large-eddy simulation of flows over random urban-like obstacles. Bound Layer Meteor 129:1–23

    Article  Google Scholar 

  24. Xie ZT (2011) Modelling street-scale flow and dispersion in realistic winds—towards coupling with mesoscale meteorological models. Bound Layer Meteor 141:53–75

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgments

The authors thank two anonymous reviewers for providing valuable comments on this work. This work was supported by the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) grant funded by the Korea Ministry of Education, Science and Technology (MEST) (No. 2012-0005674) and also supported by the Brain Korea 21 Project (through the School of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Seoul National University).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Seoul National University, 1 Gwanak-ro, Gwanak-gu, Seoul, 151-742, South Korea

    Seung-Bu Park, Jong-Jin Baik & Beom-Soon Han

Authors
  1. Seung-Bu Park
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Jong-Jin Baik
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Beom-Soon Han
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Jong-Jin Baik.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Park, SB., Baik, JJ. & Han, BS. Large-eddy simulation of turbulent flow in a densely built-up urban area. Environ Fluid Mech 15, 235–250 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10652-013-9306-3

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10652-013-9306-3

Keywords

Search

Navigation