JAUE2018-038 Research on the Effect of Corridor along a Street on the Thermal Environment of the Street Pedestrian Level in Xi’an

Abstract

Streets, as one important kind of urban outdoor spaces where many social and individual activities are carried out, play an important role in the urban thermal comfort. This research focuses on the effect of corridor along a street on the thermal comfort in Xi’an. Several ideal corridors and streets of different aspect ratio are set up and simulated via simulation software ENVI-met to calculate air temperature value at pedestrian height in summer. The south to north streets are simulated and difference values of streets with and without corridors are analyzed to assess the effect. Analytical results indicate that the thermal environment of streets with corridors is better that of streets without corridors on the whole. Correlation analysis reveals that thermal comfort is best when the aspect ratio of the street is 2:1 and under the circumstances that the street aspect ratio ranges from 1: 2 to 3:1(including 1:2, 1:1, 
2:1 and 3:1 in this paper), the deeper depth of the corridors, the better thermal comfort of the pedestrian level. However, when the street aspect ratio reaches 4:1, 5:1 and 6:1, the depth of corridors has no significant correlation with difference values of the thermal environment. We suggest that some certain corridors are best for urban streets, and corridors should be used to improve the original thermal environment.