Numerical investigations on outdoor thermal comfort for built environment : Case study of a Northwest campus in China

• Outdoor thermal comfort has been receiving more and more attentions due to the increased demand of outdoor activities during last decades. People require good thermal comfort when they are exposed to the outdoor thermal environment. However, the natural environment is severely suffering from the pollution of air, water as well as the extremely hot weather. Therefore, construction of ecological living environment is of great importance. To evaluate and improve the built environment, a campus area located in Northwest China was selected. Numerical simulations based on the software ENVI-met V4.0 were conducted and the effect of growing plants upon the outdoor thermal comfort was analyzed. Numerical results were compared using different thermal Indexes: Physiological Equivalent Temperature (PET) and Universal Thermal Climate Index (UTCI). Results demonstrated that UTCI gave a lower prediction than that of PET and was more suitable for evaluating the outdoor thermal comfort. Growing trees can significantly reduce the uncomfortable hours during hot summer but the improvement will reach the limitation after growing amount of trees.

Subject headings

TEKNIK OCH TEKNOLOGIER  -- Maskinteknik -- Energiteknik (hsv//swe)

ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY  -- Mechanical Engineering -- Energy Engineering (hsv//eng)

TEKNIK OCH TEKNOLOGIER  -- Samhällsbyggnadsteknik -- Husbyggnad (hsv//swe)

ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY  -- Civil Engineering -- Building Technologies (hsv//eng)

Keyword

ENVI-met simulation

Greening

Outdoor thermal comfort

Universal thermal climate index (UTCI)

Forestry

Water pollution

Climate index

ENVI-met

Natural environments

Numerical investigations

Outdoor thermal environment

Physiological equivalent temperatures

Thermal comfort

Publication and Content Type

ref (subject category)

kon (subject category)