Dr. Zhiwen (Vincent) Luo

 

Dr Luo’s research expertise covers building-and-urban scale environmental design to achieve sustainable and healthy indoor and outdoor environments. On the urban scale, he has developed an analytical model to explain the significant phase delay in urban air temperature globally, and integrated the urban and building energy models to predict building energy consumption and indoor overheating in the urban context. He has also conducted extensive research on urban ventilation in mega cities such as Hong Kong and London to mitigate urban pollution and heat. On the building scale, he is interested in optimum building ventilation design for a balance between health benefit and energy cost. In particular, his work contributed to an explanation of the role of ventilation pattern in an outbreak of influenza in a general hospital ward in Hong Kong. He also co-authored the WHO guideline on ‘Natural ventilation for infection control in health-care settings’ by providing different hospital natural ventilation designing solutions.

He has published over 20 peer-reviewed journal papers. His recent research interests focus on the interaction between urban and building scales, in particular integrated building-urban design to reduce indoor exposure to outdoor pollutions within the context of emergent economies such as China, India and Kenya.

Research Projects

2020-23: Air Pollution Solutions for Vulnerable Groups (CleanAir4V) (Co-I, NERC, NE/V002414/1)
2020-22: Artificial intelligence for healthy and productive workplace (PI, Innovate UK-KTP)
2020-21: Thames Valley Smart City Living Lab (Co-I, £4.5m, responsible for smart city for air pollution and supervising one PDRA)
2020-21: SARs-CoV-2 virus transmission in crowded indoor environment (PI, GCRF)
2020-21: Met office CSSP China: Development of an improved urban-environment scheme in global and regional models (Co-I. PI- Prof Sue Grimmond, co-supervising a PDRA on building heat emission)
2019–20: Personal air pollution exposure inequality in Rural China (PI. GCRF-Reading)
2018–21: Climate service for resilience to overheating risk in Colombo, Sri Lanka: a multi-scale mapping approach (COSMA) (PI, NERC, NE/S005889/1)
2018–19: A tale of two cities: urban design and air pollution (PI, UoR internal)
2016–17: EPSRC-GCRF: Health benefit and economic cost of prioritising intervention strategies to reduce indoor exposure to outdoor PM2.5 pollutions in Beijing, China (PI, EP/P511018/1)
2014–16: Climate-Kic Smart, Sustainable Districts: Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park (Co-I, Climate Kic).

Output and Publications

  1. Luo, Z, Chapter 5.5. “Natural Ventilation for Infection Control in Health-Care Settings”, Eds. Atkinson, J., Li, Y et al. WHO guideline
  2. Gough H, Luo Z, Halios C, Grimmond CSB, Barlow JF, Robertson A, Hoxey R, Quinn A. 2018. Field measurement of natural ventilation rate in an idealised full-scale building located in a staggered urban array: Comparison between tracer gas and pressure-based methods. Building and Environment, 137:246-256
  3. Shi L, Zhang H, Li Z, Luo Z, Liu J. Optimizing the thermal performance of building envelopes for energy saving in underground office buildings in various climates of China. Tunnelling and Underground Space Technology, in press
  4. Gough H, Sato T, Halios C, Grimmond CSB, Luo Z, Barlow JF, Robertson A, Hoxey R, Quinn A. Effects of variability of local winds on cross ventilation for a simplified building within a full-scale asymmetric array: Overview of the Silsoe field campaign. Journal of Wind Engineering and Industrial Aerodynamics 175: 108-118
  5. Yuan, Y., Luo, Z., Liu, J., Wang, Y. and Lin, Y. 2018. Health and economic benefits of building ventilation interventions for reducing indoor PM2.5 exposure from both indoor and outdoor origins in urban Beijing, China. Science of the Total Environment 626: 546-554.
  6. Wang, K., Li, Y., Luo, Z., Yin, S. and Chan, P. W. 2017. Harmonics analysis of 130-year hourly air temperature in Hong Kong: detecting urban warming from the perspective of annual and daily cycles.Climate Dynamics. ISSN 0930-7575 (In Press)
  7. Barlow, J., M. Best, S. Bohnenstengel, P. Clark, S. Grimmond, H. Lean, A. Christen, S. Emeis, M. Haeffelin, I. Harman, A. Lemonsu, A. Martilli, E. Pardyjak, M. Rotach, S. Ballard, I. Boutle, A. Brown, X.-M. Cai, M. Carpentieri, O. Coceal, B. Crawford, S. Di Sabatino, J. Dou, D. Drew, J. Edwards, J. Fallmann, K., Fortuniak, J. Gornall, T. Gronemeier, C. Halios, D. Hertwig, K. Hirano, A. Holtslag, Luo, Z., G. Mills, M. Nakayoshi, K. Pain, K. Schlünzen, S. Smith, L. Soulhac, G. Steeneveld, T. Sun, N. Theeuwes, D. Thomson, J. Voogt, H. Ward, Z. Xie, and J. Zhong, 2017: Developing a research strategy to better understand, observe and simulate urban atmospheric processes at kilometre to sub-kilometre scales. Bull. Amer. Meteor. Soc. doi:10.1175/BAMS-D-17-0106.1.
  8. Hang, J, Luo, Z., et al. 2017. The influence of street layouts and viaduct settings on daily carbon monoxide exposure and intake fraction in idealized urban canyons. Environmental Pollution 220 (Part A):72-86. Doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envpol.2016.09.024
  9. Yang, X, Li, Y, Luo, Z., Chan, P. 2017. The Urban Cool Island Phenomenon in a High-Rise High-Density City and its Mechanisms. International Journal of Climatology, 37 (2): 890-904. doi: https://doi.org/10.1002/joc.4747
  10. Li B, Luo Z, Sandberg M and Liu J. 2015. Revisiting the ‘Venturi effect’ in passage ventilation between two non-parallel buildings. Building and Environment, 94:714-722
  11. Luo, Z, Asproudi, C. 2015. Subsurface urban heat island and its effects on horizontal ground-source heat pump potential under climate change. Applied Thermal Engineering, 90: 530-537
  12. Luo, Z, Zhao, J, Yao, R. 2015. Emergy-based sustainability assessment of different energy options for green buildings. Energy Conversion and Management, 100: 97-102
  13. Yao, R, Luo, Q, Luo, Z, Jiang, Lai. 2015. An integrated study of urban microclimates in Chongqing, China: historical weather data, transverse measurement and numerical simulation. Sustainable Society and Cities, 14: 187-199
  14. Shahrestani, M, Yao, R, Luo, Z. 2015.A field study of urban microclimates in London. Renewable Energy, 73:3-9
  15. Lin, M., Hang, J., Li, Y., Luo, Z. and Sandberg, M. 2014. Quantitative ventilation assessments of idealized urban canopy layers with various urban layouts and the same building packing density. Building and Environment, 79:152-167
  16. Hang J, Luo Z, Sandberg M. 2013.Natural ventilation assessment in typical open an semi-open urban environments under various wind directions. Building and Environment, 70: 318-333
  17. Gao J, Cao C, Luo Z, Zhang X. 2013. Inhalation exposure to particulate matter in rooms with underfloor air distribution. Indoor and Built Environment, 23:236-245
  18. Gao J, Cao C, Luo Z, Zhang X. 2013. Volume-based Size Distribution of Accumulation and Coarse Particles (PM0.1-10) from Cooking Fume during Oil Heating. Building and Environment,59: 575-580
  19. Liu J, Luo Z, Zhao J. 2012. Ventilation in a Street Canyon at a Diurnal Heating Situation. International Journal of Ventilation, ,11(2): 141-154
  20. Luo Z, Li, Y and Lu W. 2011. Effects of wind ventilation patterns on carbon monoxide level in a high-rise mega city. International Journal of Ventilation,10(3):239-250
  21. Luo Z and Li Y. 2011.Passive urban ventilation by combined buoyancy-driven slope flow and wall flows: parametric CFD studies on idealized urban model. Atmospheric Environment,45: 1352-2310
  22. Luo Z, Li Y and Nazaroff W. 2010. Intake fraction of nonreactive vehicle exhaust in Hong Kong. Atmospheric Environment, 44: 1913-1918
  23. Wong BCK, Lee N, Li Y, Chan PK, Qiu H, Luo Z, Lai R, Hui DSC, Choi KW, Yu ITS. 2010.Possible role of aerosol transmission in a hospital outbreak of influenza Clinical Infectious Diseases, 51 (10):1176-1183
  24. 1.Luo Z, Zhao J, Gao J. 2007.Estimating the natural ventilation potential considering both thermal comfort and IAQ issues. Building and Environment,42 (6):2289-2298

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