Wind-tunnel measurements of flow field characteristics around a heated model building

The heat transfer from directly or indirectly heated buildings to the ambient air induces buoyancy effects. The superposition of atmospheric approach flow and buoyancy changes the flow field when compared with the non-heated case. This can affect, e.g., the spreading of pollutants which are either transported by the oncoming flow or released from the building. When problems of local air pollution, pollutant transport, air ventilation and air condition around buildings are of interest, the superposition of approach flow and buoyancy-driven flow has not often been considered in detail so far. Within this paper, flow field analyses around non-heated and heated model buildings are given which were carried out in an atmospheric boundary layer wind tunnel. To measure the flow field around the buildings, a 2-d-LDA-system was used. The aim of the investigations was to show the phenomenological changes in the flow field of heated buildings when compared with the non-heated case.