Turbulent Flow Analysis of a Representative Low-Height Urban Landscape in Mexico

This article analyzes the applications of computational fluid dynamics (CFD) in addressing the issue of flow patterns in a realistic urban landscape, specifically in the Metropolitan Area of Monterrey. CFD enables the simulation of physical phenomena such as turbulence, which is useful for studying the transport behavior of pollutants in urban environments. The computational model was obtained from satellite imaging and covered a surface of about 1.134 km × 1.227 km. It was composed of 173 urban blocks, representing around 3570 houses, including hospitals, schools, recreation centers and other gathering places. The population of the urban landscape was estimated at around 11,400 inhabitants. Three velocity scenarios, low, average, and high (air gusts), were simulated, using data from a local weather station. The Reynolds numbers (Re) ranged from 1.9 × 106 to 21.2 × 106, falling within the fully developed turbulence regime, which was modeled using the renormalization group (RNG) k–ε turbulence model. Results showed that the mean velocity patterns were preserved independent of the Reynolds number (Re) and were characterized by regions of high velocity in the main avenues, as well as other regions of low velocity between urban blocks. This methodology may also be applicable for understanding the flow patterns of similar urban regions composed of irregularly arranged low-rise blocks.