Mode: Mixed
Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) modelling is a powerful tool for evaluating air pollutants, pedestrian-level ventilation, and heat removal in urban areas. Street canyons are flanked by high-rise buildings on the sides which would degrade the transport processes due to weakened winds. Besides, the atmospheric flows and turbulence are complicated by heterogeneous urban morphology that are merely addressed by mesoscale meteorological models. Engineering CFD is able to simulate the airflows around individual buildings, examine the multiscale dynamics/interaction, and to identify problematic areas. In addition to the fundamental understanding of atmospheric processes, it enables systematic sensitivity tests to building configurations so as to improve urban planning, public health, as well as city sustainability. In this seminar, the speaker will introduce the application of CFD for urban-scale environmental fluid mechanics and share his experience of using CFD to diagnose (and hopefully mitigate) the problems related to air quality and thermal comfort in cities.
Professor Chun-Ho Liu has received his BEng and PhD degrees from the Department of Mechanical Engineering, the University of Hong Kong (HKU). He was the Postdoctoral Research Fellow with the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR), USA. His research areas are:
1. Air pollution physics and chemistry;
2. Geophysical turbulence; and
3. Scientific computing.
In short, he uses large-scale computer models to examine atmospheric turbulence and air quality. In view of the dense built environment in Hong Kong, his current focus is urban atmospheric boundary layer (ABL) to address the scientific question – “How urban morphology modifies the transport processes”.
Clean water and clean air are vital for public health. This project focuses on developing high-efficiency and environmentally sustainable filters for removing harmful air/water pollutants. The team has developed novel architectures and functionalities for the filters to achieve high permeance, high removal efficiency, and excellent reusability.
