Constructing the Urban Landscape Through Heat Turbulence Fluxes as a Passive Form to Mitigate Urban Heat Islands

Monica Ballinas, Sean Rodolfo S. Vilchis-Martínez, Adriana Lira-Oliver, Juan Gerardo Oliva Salinas and Victor L. Barradas ()
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Monica Ballinas: Laboratorio de Entornos Sostenibles, Facultad de Arquitectura, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Mexico City 04510, Mexico
Sean Rodolfo S. Vilchis-Martínez: Laboratorio de Entornos Sostenibles, Facultad de Arquitectura, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Mexico City 04510, Mexico
Adriana Lira-Oliver: Laboratorio de Entornos Sostenibles, Facultad de Arquitectura, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Mexico City 04510, Mexico
Juan Gerardo Oliva Salinas: Laboratorio de Entornos Sostenibles, Facultad de Arquitectura, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Mexico City 04510, Mexico
Victor L. Barradas: Laboratorio de Interacción Planta Atmosfera, Instituto de Ecología, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Mexico City 04510, Mexico

Land, 2025, vol. 14, issue 10, 1-16

Abstract: Urban microclimates depend on the city’s features, geographical position, climatic conditions, solar irradiance, and building materials. Many urban elements delay heat dissipation, giving rise to the urban heat island (UHI) phenomenon. (1) In Mexico City, UHIs occur mainly during the dry season (April–May) and likely increase in energy consumption in buildings. (2) Computational fluid dynamics models such as Ansys Fluent provide detailed flow field data related to atmospheric parameters and building surface fluctuations. With the data generated, a mitigation technique is proposed that displaces heat away from buildings, using air turbulence to actively cool them by examining the performance of w . (3) An experimental analysis was carried out to simulate thermal and aerodynamic scenarios throughout the day around three modules of different sizes, configurations, and albedo values. All modules showed a decrease in the difference between the building temperature and the air temperature, becoming colder with differences from −0.46 to −0.76 °C, while w presented values from −1.3 to 0.59 m·s −1 , indicating some turbulence. (4) Therefore, it is necessary to consider mitigating UHIs in urban planning through efficient use of the properties and construction materials of each building and their arrangement in each block.

Keywords: Ansys Fluent; CFD models; UHI mitigation; Urban structure; Mexico City (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q15 Q2 Q24 Q28 Q5 R14 R52 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
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