Steady-state CFD modelling and experimental analysis of the local microclimate in Dubai (UAE)

Abstract

Rapid urban growth and development over the past few years in Dubai has increased the rate at which the mean maximum temperatures are rising. Progressive soaring temperatures have greater effect of heat islands that add on to the high cooling demands. This work numerically explicated the effect of HIs in a tropical desert climate by adopting Heriot-Watt University Dubai Campus (HWUDC) as a case study. The study analysed thermal flow behaviour around the campus by using Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) as a numerical tool. The three dimensional Reynolds-Averaged Navier–Stokes (RANS) equations were solved under FLUENT commercial code to simulate temperature and wind flow parameters at each discretised locations. Field measurements were carried out to validate the results produced by CFD for closer approximation in the representation of the actual phenomenon. Results established that the air temperature is inversely proportional to wind velocity. Hotspots were formed in the zone 1 and 3 region with a temperature rise of 9.1% that caused a temperature increase of 2.7 °C. Observations illustrated that the building configuration altered the wind flow pattern where the wind velocity was higher in the zone 2 region. Findings determined increase in the sensible cooling load by 19.61% due to 1.22 °C temperature rise. This paper highlighted the application of CFD in modelling an urban micro-climate and also shed light into future research development to quantify the HIs.