A conservative immersed boundary method for the multi-physics urban large-eddy simulation model uDALES v2.0

• Published in: Geoscientific Model Development Vol. 17; no. 16; pp. 6277 - 6300
• Main Authors: Owens, Sam O, Majumdar, Dipanjan, Wilson, Chris E, Bartholomew, Paul, van Reeuwijk, Maarten
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Katlenburg-Lindau Copernicus GmbH 26-08-2024; Copernicus Publications
• Subjects: Air flow; Algorithms; Analysis; Atmospheric boundary layer; Boundary conditions; Cartesian coordinates; Computer industry; Computer simulation; Computer-generated environments; Decomposition; Energy balance; Fourier transforms; Geometry; Heat exchange; Heat transfer; Heat transmission; Large eddy simulation; Large eddy simulations; Methods; Microclimate; Oceanic eddies; Physics; Pollutants; Pollution dispersion; Radiation; Scale models; Simulation; Simulation methods; Simulation models; Surface energy; Surface fluxes; Surface properties; Urban areas; United States
• ISSN: 1991-959X; 1991-962X; 1991-962X; 1991-9603
• DOI: 10.5194/gmd-17-6277-2024

uDALES is an open-source multi-physics microscale urban modelling tool, capable of performing large-eddy simulation (LES) of urban airflow, heat transfer, and pollutant dispersion. We present uDALES v2.0, which has two main new features: (1) an improved parallelisation that prepares the codebase for conducting exascale simulations and (2) a conservative immersed boundary method (IBM) suitable for an urban surface that does not need to be aligned with the underlying Cartesian grid. The urban geometry and local topography are incorporated via a triangulated surface with a resolution that is independent of the fluid grid. The IBM developed here includes the use of wall functions to apply surface fluxes, and the exchange of heat and moisture between the surface and the air is conservative by construction. We perform a number of validation simulations, ranging from neutral, coupled internal-external flows and non-neutral cases. We observe close agreement with the relevant literature, both in cases in which the buildings are aligned with the Cartesian grid and when they are at an angle. We introduce a validation case specifically for urban applications, for which we show that supporting non-grid-aligned geometries is crucial when solving surface energy balances, with errors of up to 20 % associated with using a grid-aligned geometry.