Journal of Wind Engineering

and Industrial Aerodynamics 81 (1999) 295}309

Evaluation of pedestrian winds in urban area

by numerical approach
Jianming He, Charles C.S. Song*
St. Anthony Falls Laboratory, Civil Engineering Department, and Minnesota Supercomputing Institute,
University of Minnesota, Mississippi River at 3rd Avenue, S.E. Minneapolis, MN 55414-2196, USA

Abstract

A large eddy simulation CFD model based on the weakly compressible #ow equations has
been used to simulate the pedestrian wind "elds around urban area. This paper presents some
practical examples of the CFD model applications to environmental wind evaluation. Since
numerical model can provide the detailed wind #ow data at every grid points and every time
step at di!erent wind conditions, it has a great advantage over wind tunnel test to accurately
evaluate the wind e!ects on pedestrian and other environmental issues. Furthermore, advanced
computing technology has made the numerical modeling become fast and cheap. Currently,
a typical case of the examples can be completed within 2}3 weeks. It is believed that the CFD
method is now a feasible tool of wind engineering.  1999 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights
reserved.

Keywords: CFD; Wind; Pedestrian

1. Introduction

Existence of one or a group of tall buildings is known to alter the velocity "eld
surrounding the building or a group of buildings in such a way that the comfort of
pedestrians may be adversely a!ected. Production of corner vortex shedding, horse-
shoe vortex, and other wind e!ects due to interactions between buildings are some of
the reasons that areas of high wind velocity and turbulence are generated. Pedestrian
acceptability of sidewalks, entrances, plazas, and terraces is often an important design
parameter to be considered by the building owner and architect. Assessment of the
acceptability of the pedestrian-wind environment is desirable during the project

* Corresponding author.
E-mail address: csong@msi.umn.edu (C.C.S. Song)

0167-6105/99/$ - see front matter  1999 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.
PII: S 0 1 6 7 - 6 1 0 5 ( 9 9 ) 0 0 0 2 5 - 2
296 J. He, C.C.S. Song / J. Wind Eng. Ind. Aerodyn. 81 (1999) 295}309

design phase so that modi"cations can be made, if necessary, to improve areas found
to be excessively windy.
Traditionally, the evaluation of pedestrian-wind condition relies heavily on wind
tunnel testing. But, the computational #uid dynamics and the computer capability
have advanced so much in recent years that numerical simulation can now be made
more economically and yield more complete and equally as accurate results. For an
example, where as wind tunnel testing can only give wind velocity data at limited
number of points [1] the numerical model can give complete contour lines of velocity
and turbulence level [2].
Compared with the sound speed, the pedestrian wind velocity is usually so small
that the #ow is essentially the same as that of the incompressible #uid. Therefore, there
is a strong tendency to use the incompressible #ow equations to model the pedestrian
winds. There is also a tendency in the computational #uid dynamic community to
base the simulation on one or other version of Reynolds' time-averaged method, such
as the k}e model. However, incompressible #ow models are known to be very unstable
and require large amount of computer time when it is used to simulate unsteady #ows
at large Reynolds number. Gusty pedestrian wind is the result of highly time-
dependent large-scale eddies generated by the buildings and time-averaged model is
not suitable. Accurate resolution of large eddies is essential to accurate prediction of
maximum wind velocity.
The large eddy simulation (LES) method based on the concept of weakly compress-
ible #ow has been developed by Song and Yuan [3] and applied to wind load
computation by Song and He [2,4] and He and Song [5,6]. This method was recently
proved by Song and Chen [7] to be 100 times as fast as the traditional incompressible
#ow approach. This method is here applied to simulate the pedestrian-wind condi-
tions of some practical cases. This paper describes the model and some of the
simulation results.

2. Theoretical bases and the numerical approach

The most commonly used equation of continuity for compressible #uid is

*o *
# (ou )"0. (1)
*t *x G
G
If the #uid is assumed to be incompressible then the equation reduces to
*u
G"0. (2)
*x
G
On the other hand, if a more general barotropic #ow de"ned as
*p
"a (3)
*o
is assumed, the equation of continuity may be written as
*p * *a
# (oau )"ou . (4)
*t *x G G *x
G G
 J. He, C.C.S. Song / J. Wind Eng. Ind. Aerodyn. 81 (1999) 295}309 297

In the above equations o is the density, p the pressure, a the sound speed, and u is the
G
velocity.
For most pedestrian wind the Mach number, M, is less than 0.1 so that the change
in sound speed as well as density is very small and Eq. (4) may be simpli"ed as
*p *
# (o au )"0. (5)
*t *x   G
G
Under the same condition of small M the equation of motion is the same as that of the
incompressible #uid and may be written as
*u * 1 *p *u
H# (u u )# "l G , (6)
*t *x G H o *x *x *x
G  G G H
where l is the kinematic viscosity. Song and Yuan [3] called Eqs. (5) and (6) the
equations for weakly compressible #ows. Song [8] showed that the weakly compress-
ible #ow equations has the inner solution which represents the transient #ow and the
outer solution which represents the incompressible #ow. More recently, Song and
Chen [7] showed that the weakly compressible #ow approach can be 100 times faster
than the incompressible #ow approach in solving unsteady incompressible #ow
problems.
Pedestrian wind is invariably turbulent and it is impractical to be fully resolved
with any numerical approach. (Wind tunnel testing is just as impractical to resolve
small-scale #uctuations.) The method that comes closest to simulating the details of
turbulent #ow is the large eddy simulation (LES) approach which is based on the idea
that large-scale #uctuations are directly computed while small-scale #uctuations are
only approximated with a sub-grid scale turbulence model. Among the existing
numerical methods, the "nite volume method is believed to be most natural for LES
approach. Since Eqs. (5) and (6) are in a conservative form, they can also be
represented by the following equation:
*; *F
# G"0. (7)
*t *x
G
The "nite volume approach is to divide the #ow "eld into many small "nite volumes
and solve Eq. (7) for the volume-averaged quantities. To do this, we "rst take the
volume average of each term in Eq. (7) and obtain


*;M
# FM *A "0. (8)
*t G G

In the above equation, the bar represents volume-averaged and *A are the area
G
components surrounding the "nite volume. The surface integral in (8) has a physical
meaning representing the #ux of F through the surface.
G
Since the equation of motion contains non-linear terms, u u , and FM OF (u u ),
G H G G G H
a sub-grid scale turbulence model is needed to account for the e!ect of turbulence
eddies that are smaller than the grid size. The well-known Smagorinsky [9] model
is to replace the kinematic viscosity by l#l , where l is the turbulence viscosity
 
298 J. He, C.C.S. Song / J. Wind Eng. Ind. Aerodyn. 81 (1999) 295}309

given by
l "(C D)(2SM SM ) , (9)
 Q GH GH
where


1 *u *u
SM " G# H . (10)
GH 2 *x *x
H G
Finally, the governing equation is numerically solved with MacCormack's [10]
predictor corrector scheme. The detailed description of this scheme can be found in
Yuan's thesis [11].
The LES model gives velocity and pressure at all the grid points at all time steps.
From this large amount of information all the statistical quantities such as the
time-averaged values and the root-mean-square (RMS) values can be computed.
At the upstream end, according to "eld data it is well known to the wind engineer-
ing community that the time-averaged wind velocity pro"le can be represented by the
following power law equation,


u z ?
" . (11)
u z
 
In the above equation u is the speed at elevation z, u is the speed at the reference

elevation z that is usually taken as 10 m, a is a parameter that varies with ground

condition. In urban areas it is usually taken to be 0.25.
In addition, the turbulence intensity of the inlet velocity pro"le is assumed to follow
the Gaussian distribution with a standard deviation of 0.15.
At all the solid wall boundaries, partial no-slip wall function was used [11]. At the
rest of boundaries, full-slip velocity condition was adopted.
In a typical case, a total of 12 wind directions each designated by the angles
measured clockwise from North at 303 increments are considered. Each di!erent wind
direction can be easily simulated by changing the boundary conditions instead of
turning the modeled buildings.

3. Wind e4ects on pedestrian

Generally speaking, the evaluation of wind e!ects on pedestrian is based on two

factors: wind speed and frequency. The wind speed directly a!ects the comfort level of
pedestrian. A simple classi"cation of the wind speed e!ect on pedestrian is shown in
Table 1 [12]: The wind speed is averaged over 10 min at 2 m above the ground. Recent
wind tunnel tests show that the wind speed should include the e!ect of wind gust. The
e!ective peak gust (u ) is expressed in dimensionless form as

u "u #3u , (12)
  
where u is the time-averaged wind speed, and u the wind turbulence intensity (a
 
measure of wind gustiness).
 J. He, C.C.S. Song / J. Wind Eng. Ind. Aerodyn. 81 (1999) 295}309 299

Another criterion for wind speed e!ects is based on averaged wind speed over 3 s
[13]. Such a criterion can consider the e!ects of the short high peaks of wind speed.
Based on the investigations in wind tunnel and "eld, Murakami and Deguchi [13]
proposed the following pedestrian wind criterion as given in Table 2.
The other factor of the wind e!ect on pedestrian is the frequency of wind occur-
rence. The criterion of wind frequency e!ect may vary for di!erent people in di!erent
regions. However, Simiu and Scanlan [12] proposed the general criteria as in
Table 3.
Di!erent pedestrian activities (such as sitting, standing, and walking) in the
region also have di!erent criteria of the wind e!ect. For example, in a park or square,
the main activities only need to sit or stand for a short time. So the acceptable wind
speed can be up to 19}29 km/h, and the frequency can be less than once a week. If the
wind speed is between 30 and 39 km/h, the frequency should be less than once
a month.
It also should be noted that the evaluation of the pedestrian wind should not be
based on the extreme weather conditions (such as typhoon) since there is almost no
outdoor activities as advised by the forecast.
Although there is still no legal code governing the allowable pedestrian wind speed,
Eq. (12) is commonly used [1] in wind tunnel test analysis.

Table 1

Classi"cation Wind speed (m/s) Comfort level

1 5 Uncomfortable
2 10 Very uncomfortable
3 20 Dangerous

Table 2

3-s-average wind speed (m/s) E!ect level

(5 No e!ect on walking
5}10 Some e!ect on walking
10}15 Strong e!ect on walking
'15 Very strong e!ect on walking

Table 3

Level Region Wind limitation (m/s) Frequency (h/yr)

1 Parks, squares 6 1000

2 Walking ways, inlets, outlets 12 50
3 All region 20 5
4 All region 25 (1
300 J. He, C.C.S. Song / J. Wind Eng. Ind. Aerodyn. 81 (1999) 295}309

4. Modeling results

4.1. Case 1

The problem considered is the pedestrian winds around the proposed Taipei
County Administration Building plus four nearby buildings. Fig. 1 shows the top view
of the computation mesh system around the proposed building and the other
surrounding buildings within a 700 ; 700 m computational zone. Note that
the actual computational domain is somewhat larger than that shown in the "gure.
The proposed new building (the highest one) is located about the center of the
domain. Fig. 2 shows the time-averaged three-dimensional velocity vectors about 2 m
above the ground in the full modeled domain for the west wind (2703) condition.
The velocity vectors are plotted for every other grid points in each direction
rather than at all grid points in order to show the vectors more clearly. Increased
velocity due to the wind tunnel e!ect between the two large buildings is clearly seen.
Large vortex generated behind the Administration building that produces gustiness
can also be seen. Fig. 3 shows the results for the south wind (1803). Because this
wind blows against the broad side of the new building, it generates very large
and strong horseshoe vortex. This is the reason why the wind in front of the building
at the pedestrian level is blowing downward and away from the building, contrary to
common expectations. These detailed velocity vector "elds are very di$cult to obtain

Fig. 1. Modeled building con"guration and mesh system.

 J. He, C.C.S. Song / J. Wind Eng. Ind. Aerodyn. 81 (1999) 295}309 301

Fig. 2. Time-averaged wind #ow "eld at the level of 2 m above ground due to west wind.

Fig. 3. Time-averaged wind #ow "eld at the level of 2 m above ground due to south wind.
302 J. He, C.C.S. Song / J. Wind Eng. Ind. Aerodyn. 81 (1999) 295}309

with wind tunnel testing because they require measurements at many locations for
long time periods.
Fig. 4 shows the contour lines of the dimensionless rms velocity, u /u , around the
  
new building for the west wind (2703) at z"1.7 m. Note that the area of most
intensive gustiness is near the upper left corner of the building where strong #ow
separation vortex is expected to exist. The second most intensive area is located near
the bottom of the "gure where the building has many corners generating many
vortices. Fig. 5 shows a similar plot for south wind (1803). Because the wind blows
broad side against the building, there is a large area behind the building where
intensive gust exists.
Because di!erent wind direction produces di!erent velocity distribution, the worst
pedestrian wind condition for any speci"c location need to be determined by compar-
ing the results for di!erent direction winds. Fig. 6 shows the contour lines of the
maximum relative wind velocity, (u /u ) , sorted out of the 12 wind directions
 
computed. Note that these are the time-averaged quantities not directly related to
vortices and its peak values usually occur at the corners of buildings or between two
buildings. The maximum turbulence intensity (gustiness), (u /u ) , is shown in
   
Fig. 7. Because the locations for large vortices changes with wind direction, usually

Fig. 4. Wind turbulence intensity (wind gustiness) around the new building due to west wind.
 J. He, C.C.S. Song / J. Wind Eng. Ind. Aerodyn. 81 (1999) 295}309 303

Fig. 5. Wind turbulence intensity (wind gustiness) around the new building due to south wind.

Fig. 6. Maximum mean wind velocity around the new building, sorted out of the 12 computed wind
directions.
304 J. He, C.C.S. Song / J. Wind Eng. Ind. Aerodyn. 81 (1999) 295}309

Fig. 7. Maximum wind turbulence intensity (wind gustiness) around the new building, sorted out of the 12
computed wind directions.

occurring behind the building, the overall distribution of the wind gustiness consider-
ing all possible wind directions is quite uniform over the entire computational area.
Finally, the maximum peak gust sorted out of all 12 wind directions is shown in Fig. 8.
Note that the values shown in Fig. 8 is not quite the same as the sum of the values
in Figs. 6 and 7. This is because the maximums of the two values do not
occur with the same wind direction. According to Cocharan et al. [1], the value
shown in Fig. 8 should not exceed 1.15}1.20 for pedestrian comfort. This
value is only slightly exceeded in a small area near the proposed railroad station
building.

4.2. Case 2

This case has four relatively simple buildings in the area. Fig. 9 shows the time-
averaged velocity vectors about 2 m above the ground in the full modeled domain
with all the structure con"gurations due to the south wind (1803). In this wind
direction, the #ow "eld between the large buildings is more like a #ow in a conduit
with gradually reduced cross-sectional area, which produces large mean velocity at
the corner-to-corner section of the two buildings. Due to the existence of the small low
 J. He, C.C.S. Song / J. Wind Eng. Ind. Aerodyn. 81 (1999) 295}309 305

Fig. 8. Maximum peak gust around the new building, sorted out of the 12 computed wind directions.

Fig. 9. Time-averaged wind #ow "eld at the level of 2 m above the ground due to south wind.
306 J. He, C.C.S. Song / J. Wind Eng. Ind. Aerodyn. 81 (1999) 295}309

Fig. 10. Contour lines of time-averaged wind speed at the level of 2 m above the ground due to south wind.

building between the two large buildings, the #ow passage becomes further restricted.
As a result, the high velocity vectors between the two large buildings are generated, as
shown in Fig. 9. Fig. 10 shows the contour lines of the wind speed for the same wind
condition.
Fig. 11 shows the maximum turbulence intensity (rms value of wind velocity)
sorted out of all 12 wind directions. Similar maximum peak gust contour lines are
displayed in Fig. 12. Apparently, the high value of the maximum peak gust
(u /u "1.2) between the two large buildings is contributed by the south wind, as
 
discussed before.

4.3. Case 3

This case is located in a well-developed area. The computational domain includes

a number of existing buildings. The building con"gurations in the modeled domain
and mesh system are shown in Fig. 13. In this case, the main concern is the area
between the two higher buildings and the south side of the highest building. Since
a low building is located between the two buildings, it results in a higher mean wind
velocity, and higher turbulence intensity due to vortex shedding #ow from the corner
and the roof of the low building. As shown in Fig. 14, large peak gust occurs in these
area.
 J. He, C.C.S. Song / J. Wind Eng. Ind. Aerodyn. 81 (1999) 295}309 307

Fig. 11. Maximum wind turbulence intensity (wind gustiness) sorted out of the 12 computed wind
directions.

Fig. 12. Maximum peak gust sorted out of the 12 computed wind directions.
308 J. He, C.C.S. Song / J. Wind Eng. Ind. Aerodyn. 81 (1999) 295}309

Fig. 13. Modeled building con"guration and mesh system.

Fig. 14. Maximum peak gust sorted out of 12 computed wind directions.
 J. He, C.C.S. Song / J. Wind Eng. Ind. Aerodyn. 81 (1999) 295}309 309

5. Conclusions

By the examples, it is shown that the numerical model based on large eddy
simulation approach is capable of simulating and evaluating the pedestrian winds
under di!erent geometry and wind conditions. It has previously been proved that the
numerical model is accurate by comparing numerical results with a number of
standard wind tunnel tests [5,6].
The CFD model provides detailed wind #ow data at every location, while in wind
tunnel test, the measured data are nominally limited to about 20 points. Speed is
another advantage of the CFD approach for the evaluation of pedestrian wind
environment. In the current stage, the entire work of a typical case, including grid
generation, computer simulation, data analysis and report writing was completed in
2}3 weeks. It is believed that the CFD approach is a more economical and fast tool to
evaluate the pedestrian wind environment.

Acknowledgements

The authors wish to express their gratitude to the Minnesota Supercomputing

Institute for allowing the use of its supercomputer facility.

References

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