Abstract Body

Urban form as the geometrical shape of an urban area or neighborhood consists of several parameters and variables.Height and shape of the buildings, the street width and orientation, the space between the buildings and the urban topography and vegetation are the main elements of the urban geometry.Urban form can affect ventilation potential by causing flow turbulences around and at top of buildings which results in higher wind velocity.The air velocity is either increased or decreased by building blocks and the solar energy is trapped in the urban canyons formed by buildings on both sides of the streets.The positioning of adjacent buildings on streets and main streets of various widths on the right and left leads to the formation of "urban valleys" that direct the wind.In cases where buildings prevent air flow in hot climates, the comfort conditions of people moving in the city or outdoors are affected, and people/buildings in the interior have difficulty in making use of passive cooling facilities. Pedestrian comfort level is greatly affected by the temperature,the relative humidity and the wind speed in urban canyons.Appropriate wind levels for the pedestrians increase the comfort in the cities situated in hot areas.Conversely, the high wind levels may also cause discomfort for the pedestrians in the cases where the wind speed is over the comfort and danger levels.Especially in the urban areas the wind flows is not always laminar or parallel to the surface due to the urban morphology (buildings and topography) where the friction forces causes the wind flow in a turbulent way. The duration and the intensity of the turbulence may also cause discomfort.The aim of this study is to investigate the effect of the dense structure of the city (building orientation and forms, street orientations...).The aim is to answer the questions on the relation of the prevailing wind and the wind behaviour in the built-up area. This is a multidisciplinary study between the urban architecture and urban physics. The data collection analysis and its interpretation is the numerical part of the study.