Advances in CFD Modeling of Urban Wind Applied to Aerial Mobility

[EN] The feasibility, safety, and efficiency of a drone mission in an urban environment are heavily influenced by atmospheric conditions. However, numerical meteorological models cannot cope with fine-grained grids capturing urban geometries; they are typically tuned for best resolutions ranging fro...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores: García Gutiérrez, Adrián, Gonzalo de Grado, Jesús, López Rodríguez, Deibi, Delgado Marcos, Adrián
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Estado:Versión publicada
Fecha de publicación:2022
País:España
Institución:Universidad Rey Juan Carlos
Repositorio:BULERIA. Repositorio Institucional de la Universidad de León
OAI Identifier:oai:buleria.unileon.es:10612/17698
Acceso en línea:https://www.mdpi.com/2311-5521/7/7/246
https://hdl.handle.net/10612/17698
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:Aeronáutica
Urban CFD
Urban wind database
Now-casting
3301 Ingeniería y Tecnología Aeronáuticas
Descripción
Sumario:[EN] The feasibility, safety, and efficiency of a drone mission in an urban environment are heavily influenced by atmospheric conditions. However, numerical meteorological models cannot cope with fine-grained grids capturing urban geometries; they are typically tuned for best resolutions ranging from 1 to 10 km. To enable urban air mobility, new now-casting techniques are being developed based on different techniques, such as data assimilation, variational analysis, machine-learning algorithms, and time series analysis. Most of these methods require generating an urban wind field database using CFD codes coupled with the mesoscale models. The quality and accuracy of that database determines the accuracy of the now-casting techniques. This review describes the latest advances in CFD simulations applied to urban wind and the alternatives that exist for the coupling with the mesoscale model. First, the distinct turbulence models are introduced, analyzing their advantages and limitations. Secondly, a study of the meshing is introduced, exploring how it has to be adapted to the characteristics of the urban environment. Then, the several alternatives for the definition of the boundary conditions and the interpolation methods for the initial conditions are described. As a key step, the available order reduction methods applicable to the models are presented, so the size and operability of the wind database can be reduced as much as possible. Finally, the data assimilation techniques and the model validation are presented.