Computational analysis of an urban park’s impact on the Antwerp microclimate

Urban areas are formed by replacing natural surroundings with man-made environments and they create their own, unique microclimates, which can be different from that of their rural counterparts, potentially affecting energy use and human morbidity and mortality. Since the 19th century, research on urban microclimate has progressed with observational techniques, such as field measurements and experiments. With the advances in computational resources since the 1980s, simulation approaches such as Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) have been frequently used to test, optimize and even regulate urban design alternatives. In this study, CFD simulations are performed to predict air temperatures in the central area of Antwerp and to analyze the effect of an urban park on the urban microclimate. Using the municipal database, a high-resolution computational domain and grid of the region are generated. The 3D Unsteady Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes (URANS) equations are solved in combination with the realizable k-epsilon turbulence model to determine the wind flow and heat transfer. Meteorological measurements were collected by the Flemish Institute for Technological Research at two locations: In the center of Antwerp and at a rural site approximately 10 km away from the city center. In the first part of this research, resulting air temperatures inside the city center are compared with the measurements recorded during 29-30 July 2012. The CFD simulations can predict the air temperatures with an average deviation of 1.6%. In the second part of this research, CFD simulations are performed considering three design scenarios: the existing scenario; a scenario with buildings instead of the park; a scenario with an open space instead of the park. The results on the second part of the research will be available in the full paper.status: publishe