Quantification of Wind Fluctuations in a Densely-Built, Urban District
During a Typhoon Landfall by Merging Mesoscale Meteorological and Large
Eddy Simulations
Abstract
An intense tropical cyclone, Typhoon Jebi, landed the central part of
Japan in September 2018 and caused severe damages due to strong winds.
Typhoon Jebi obtained the lifetime minimum central pressure of 915 hPa
and took a track very similar to past disastrous typhoons: Typhoon Nancy
(1961) and Muroto Typhoon (1934). In Osaka City, the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd
highest record of instantaneous wind speeds are 60.0 m/s in September
1934, 50.6 m/s in September 1961, and 47.4 m/s in September 2018,
respectively, suggesting that a typhoon has been the most threatening
windstorm in the area. Buildings and structures in urban areas are known
to affect significantly the magnitude of wind gustiness. Because of the
growing urbanization globally, quantification of turbulent winds in
densely-built, urban districts is important to understand the underlying
risks of wind damages. We investigate the influences of densely built
urban environments on the occurrence of wind gusts in urban districts of
Osaka and Kyoto City during the landfall of Typhoon Jebi by merging
mesoscale meteorological and building-resolving large-eddy simulations
(LES). By explicitly representing realistic buildings and structures in
LES, this study examines complex/complicated characteristics of winds
within the densely built urban environment. With the successful
reproduction of the track and intensity of the typhoon in meteorological
simulations, the simulated winds at the boundary-layer top of the LES
model are used to quantify the wind gusts in the urban district. The
maximum wind gust in the analysis area of Osaka is around 60-70 m/s,
which is comparable to the wind speed at the height of about 300 m. Such
wind gusts are generated by instantaneous downward momentum transfer in
areas of a cluster of buildings with variable heights. Instantaneous
wind gusts are further examined in terms of building density and are
found to be strongest when the building packing density is moderate. The
results suggest that the risks of wind damages would be maximized in
urban districts where the building height is inhomogeneous and the
packing density is moderate.