Urban experiment results characterize building wakes, aiding airborne hazard applications

In the first decade of this century, the Army Research Laboratory conducted three urban field studies aimed at characterizing the airflow and stability around a small cluster of urban buildings. The third study, WSMR 2007 Urban Study (W07US), utilized 12 towers/tripods and 52 sensors over a two week period, to provide a detailed measurement set. From this data set, the building wake region was characterized under light and strong wind conditions. Observational descriptions and post-study model runs supplement the quantitative measurements, linking the results to their potential impacts that these patterns might have on airborne hazard scenarios. This paper will describe the W07US field study, representative low and high wind case studies, the observed building wake character from each case, the results of model simulations for these cases, and the relevancy of the field observations to potential emergency First Responder, operational scenarios.