Estimation of Thermal Comfort Using a WRF-MENEX Model during a Heat Wave in a Complex Urban Area

Campus building was a place to accommodate various educational activities, which were both carried out indoors and outdoors. The environment, including the building and its exterior, provided thermal comfort that was influenced by the context, such as the mass of the facility, vegetation, and constructing envelope materials. The microclimate also influenced the environment, such as temperature, wind speed, and humidity. This study aimed to investigate the outdoor thermal comfort of campus building in urban area during summer, while also identifying the influential factors. This research referred to a case study, examining the thermal quality of the educational building environment using ENVI-met software, based on the Predicted Mean Vote (PMV) index as an indicator of outdoor thermal comfort, in Universitas Kebangsaan (UK). The results showed that the outdoor environment had low thermal comfort conditions during the day, as it also had different thermal satisfactory situations, due to differences in physical characteristics in each zone. This characteristics included, (1) The SVF determinant as indicators of the shading factor should be supported by the presence of vegetation and the use of pavement material, (2) Although the wind speed factor does not really affect the thermal comfort in the outdoor space, the interconnection between open gaps is likely to make breeze distribution in the area better. This study offered direction for campus planning, in order to maintain the optimal capacity of the natural environment, such as (1) Strategizing to create a better shadowing factor in the outer space, which was supported by controlling the use of pavement materials, (2) Directing the density of buildings by making open spaces more permeable, in order for better wind distribution in the area. From this study, the campus current conditions and future design development potential was also observed.

Download Full-text

Impact of urbanization level on the interactions of urban area, the urban climate, and human thermal comfort

Applied Geography ◽

10.1016/j.apgeog.2016.12.007 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 79 ◽

pp. 50-72 ◽

Cited By ~ 29

Author(s):

Kenobi Isima Morris ◽

Andy Chan ◽

Kwami Justina Kwami Morris ◽

Maggie C.G. Ooi ◽

Muhammad Y. Oozeer ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Thermal Comfort ◽

Urban Area ◽

Urban Climate ◽

Urbanization Level ◽

Human Thermal Comfort ◽

Impact Of Urbanization

Download Full-text

Optimization of building form and its fenestration in response to microclimate conditions of an urban area

E3S Web of Conferences ◽

10.1051/e3sconf/202017219002 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 172 ◽

pp. 19002

Author(s):

Kavan Javanroodi ◽

Vahid M. Nik ◽

Yuchen Yang

Keyword(s):

Thermal Comfort ◽

Urban Area ◽

Urban Areas ◽

Energy Demand ◽

High Performance ◽

Weather Conditions ◽

Climate Data ◽

Heating And Cooling ◽

Building Form ◽

Microclimate Conditions

Designing building form in urban areas is a complicated process that demands considering a high number of influencing parameters. On the other hand, there has been an increasing trend to design highly fenestrated building envelopes for office buildings to induce higher levels of natural lighting into the workspace. This paper presents a novel optimization framework to design high-performance building form and fenestration configuration considering the impacts of urban microclimate in typical and extreme weather conditions during a thirty-year period of climate data (2010-2039). In this regard, based on the introduced technique and algorithm, the annual energy demand and thermal comfort of over 8008 eligible form combinations with eight different fenestration configurations and seven different building orientation angels were analysed in a detailed urban area to find optimal design solutions in response to microclimate conditions. Results showed that adopting the framework, annual heating, and cooling demand can be reduced by 21% and 38% while maintaining thermal comfort by taking design-based decisions at the early stages of design.

Download Full-text

Prediction of wind environment and thermal comfort at pedestrian level in urban area

Journal of Wind Engineering and Industrial Aerodynamics ◽

10.1016/j.jweia.2008.02.033 ◽

2008 ◽

Vol 96 (10-11) ◽

pp. 1498-1527 ◽

Cited By ~ 171

Author(s):

Akashi Mochida ◽

Isaac Y.F. Lun

Keyword(s):

Thermal Comfort ◽

Urban Area ◽

Wind Environment

Download Full-text

CFD Study of Thermal Comfort in Urban Area

Energy and Environmental Engineering ◽

10.13189/eee.2017.050102 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 5 (1) ◽

pp. 8-18

Author(s):

Fidaros Dimitris ◽

Baxevanou Catherine ◽

Tsagrasoulis Aris ◽

Bartzanas Thomas ◽

Kittas Constantinos

Keyword(s):

Thermal Comfort ◽

Urban Area

Download Full-text

What is the most threatening for citizens of a mid-latitude city: cold stress or heat stress?

10.5194/egusphere-egu21-6320 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Sara Top ◽

Dragan Milošević ◽

Steven Caluwaerts ◽

Stevan Savić

Keyword(s):

Heat Stress ◽

Cold Stress ◽

Thermal Comfort ◽

Heat Wave ◽

Outdoor Thermal Comfort ◽

Belgian Society ◽

Human Thermal Comfort ◽

Summer Heat ◽

Heat And Cold Stress ◽

The City

Both heat and cold waves cause extreme human thermal discomfort and a clear excess in mortality. This shows the importance of knowing the prevailing thermal comfort conditions and how thermal comfort conditions vary in various environments so measures can be taken. Microclimatic and outdoor human thermal comfort conditions are investigated in various built-up and green areas in the city of Ghent (Belgium) using meteorological measurements of six weather stations of the MOCCA (Monitoring the Cities Climate and Atmosphere) network in combination with calculations done by RayMan.Normal to extreme summer heat wave periods show that dangerous strong heat stress prevails during the daytime periods at all locations. Comparison of thermal comfort during normal and extreme summer heat wave periods showed that heat stress is more extreme when a heat wave is more intense. Overall the urban park in Ghent was the most comfortable location during heat waves since it effectively mitigates heat stress in the city. These results should be taken into account in urban planning and design to keep mid-latitude cities livable.Further, a one year data series revealed that outdoor cold stress was more apparent during 2017 in the mid-latitude city of Ghent that experiences a mild maritime climate. During spring and summer, both heat stress and cold stress occurred due to the larger diurnal temperature range compared to the other seasons. Even though high Physiological Equivalent Temperatures (PET) were obtained during a heat wave in summer, heat stress did not occur as intensely and as frequently compared to cold stress on annual level. It could thus be stated that outdoors, cold stress is a bigger threat than heat stress. However, one should keep in mind that the study was executed for outdoor thermal heat comfort and that people will take shelter or take measures when feeling uncomfortable. The question is thus rather, how are citizens protected against heat and cold stress? Currently, the Belgian society is better adapted to cold stress since most buildings contain central heating, while air conditioning is not standard. Future projections predict an increase in temperature, causing more occurrence of extreme heat stress, while extreme cold stress will be reduced. Additionally, the urban heat island effect currently has mainly a positive effect on the average annual outdoor thermal comfort conditions, while it will become a negative effect in the warmer future. Measures should thus be taken to reduce the threat of future heat stress.

Download Full-text

Thermal Comfort Level Assessment in Urban Area of Petrolina-PE County, Brazil

Revista Brasileira de Meteorologia ◽

10.1590/0102-7786324004 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 32 (4) ◽

pp. 555-563 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Pedro Vieira de Azevedo ◽

Péricles Tadeu da Costa Bezerra ◽

Mario de Miranda Vilas Boas Ramos Leitão ◽

Carlos Antonio Costa dos Santos

Keyword(s):

Thermal Comfort ◽

Urban Area ◽

Rural Areas ◽

Urban Areas ◽

Thermal Conditions ◽

Comfort Level ◽

Urban Heat Islands ◽

Thermal Discomfort ◽

Heat Islands ◽

Urban And Rural Areas

Abstract This study evaluated the thermal conditions of urban areas in Petrolina-PE, from continuous data collected in urban and rural areas for the year of 2012. The results characterized urban heat islands (UHI) with varying intensity in urban areas, especially UHI = 5.3 °C (high intensity) occurred on April 28, 2012. It was evident that the constituent elements of urban areas contribute to the formation and expansion of UHI bringing thermal discomfort for its inhabitants. An adaptation to Thom’s equation for calculating the Thermal Discomfort Index (DIT), was used to obtain the maximum (DITx) and minimum (DITm) thermal discomfort. In the urban area, the DITm indicated thermal comfort in 23.0% of the days and partial comfort in 77.0% of days surveyed. Already, the DITx characterized 71.6% of days with partial comfort and 28.4% of days with thermal discomfort. In the rural area, The DITm indicated that 41.5% of days were thermally comfortable and 58.5% of days had partial comfort. However, the DITx pointed 87.7% of the days of this environment with partial thermal comfort and 12.3% of thermally uncomfortable days. Finally, the results showed that afforestation of urban area constitutes to an effective and efficient way to mitigate thermal discomfort.

Download Full-text