Introduction

Bridges

Dispersion of Airborne Material

Urban and Rural Winds

Windycity 1.4 Beta-Testing

Urban and Rural Winds

Wind in urban environments is affected by city plans and building designs, and affects pedestrians and inhabitants. The nature of winds in cities surrounded by, or built on, mountains depends on the topographical characteristics of the mountains. As well, the first step in understanding the transport of airborne material through mountain ranges, or over small scale hills and valleys, lies in understanding the nature of the wind itself in these environments. Hence, fundamental understanding of wind behavior is important in many situations.

In all these cases the environment in which we seek to understand the nature of the wind is highly three-dimensional and thus requires sophisticated three-dimensional modeling tools. Most software wind prediction tools in current use were designed to run on computers significantly less powerful than available today, and hence do not truly capture the transient three-dimensional nature of wind.

Virtualwind develops sophisticated, truly three-dimensional wind simulation software which provides clear and accurate predictions on wind patterns and speeds in urban and rural environments. Specialized features include the ability to import complex terrain via the Digital Terrain Elevation Model, and statistical post-processing tools to generate output in a format familiar to urban planners and environmental scientists.

wind speed at pedestrian level

unsteady turbulant inflow and pedestrian level winds