Optimal tree design for sunshine and ventilation in residential district using geometrical models and numerical simulation

Vegetation has positive effects on the outdoor pedestrian comfort and thermal environment. Studied with He Qing Yuan district in Beijing, an investigation of the optimal landscape design of trees in residential buildings at northern China is carried out for good sunshine and comfortable wind environment. Firstly, in consideration of the legal planning requirement for basic sunshine hour control in winter for house, geometrical models for trees and buildings are built and analyzed by AutoCAD and Sketch-Up software to determine reasonable tree location between buildings, suitable heights and crown shapes. Secondly, aimed at comfortable wind environment inside the residential district, optimal arrangement of trees has been studied with numerical simulation by SPOTE (simulation platform for outdoor thermal environment), where the air velocity lower than 5 m/s is introduced as the aims of scheme optimization. With geometrical analysis and numerical simulation and comparison, the tree types and layout in green space between buildings were optimized.