Numerical and wind-tunnel analysis of convective heat transfer at ground surfaces around complex building models

Knowledge of convective heat transfer at ground surfaces around buildings is required for urban canyon models and for research on asphalt and road collectors, heat stresses in urban areas, etc. However, while many studies of convective heat transfer around buildings have been performed in the past, the focus of most of these studies was on rather simple building geometries and external surfaces of buildings. This paper, therefore, presents computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations and wind-tunnel measurements of convective heat transfer at ground surfaces around complex building models. The 3D Reynolds-averaged Navier Stokes equations are solved with a combination of the high-Re number realizable k- model and the low-Re number Wolfshtein model. The evaluation is based on validation with wind-tunnel measurement of ground surface temperature around a complex building model acquired through infrared thermography.