Microscale simulation of wind speed in urban areas during extreme weather events (case study of Moscow)

Abstract

This study is primarily based on the goal to make a model of the MSU campus to investigate wind speed distribution. As a case study, a squall event on the 29th of May 2017 is chosen. The event caused human casualties, which required much research. To validate the results, they have to be tested for their stability. In this work this goal is met by varying wind directions. Later the wind maps were achieved as the results were overlaid to reflect the variability of the wind speed distribution. Moreover, the results of this work are possible dangerous areas of a campus which can be obtained as a result of simulating hazardous wind speeds. The wind directions are varied to match 4 primary directions. The heights of interest are chosen to be 1.5 m and 12.5 m, they represent the pedestrian level and the level of half the average tree height, respectively. The simulation software used is ENVI-met. This work shows whether this software is suitable for modeling hazardous events, how stable the results are, and whether the new user is able to successfully use the possibilities offered by ENVI-met to achieve the needed goals. With the results of simulations for stability tests and dangerous area outlining, spatial distributions of the wind speed are analyzed both quantitively and qualitatively.