CFD Simulation of Integrating Solar Roads in Urban Canyon

A 3-D computational modelling analysis of a road pavement solar collector (RPSC) system was used in two different macro domains; a standard urban canyon domain and a flat domain (no buildings). The computational model was developed in ANSYS Fluent to consider the temperature effects of solar radiation and radiative exchange between canyon air and surfaces. Good agreement was observed with average error 4.19% validated from the previous CFD model. The simulation of 21st June at 13:00 demonstrated the RPSC system in the urban canyon domain performed 36.08% more effectively in thermal collection with 27.11% more surface temperature reduction as compared to its performance in the flat domain