A new urban soil model for SOLENE-microclimat: Review, sensitivity analysis and validation on a car park

The main purpose of this study is to evaluate an urban soil model that will accurately reproduce the heat flux into urban soil, which has an influence on the urban heat island effect, for typical urban land use such as a car park. After a complete literature review, a sensitivity study is carried out on a large number of parameters: material properties, layer size, deep boundary condition, and convective heat transfer coefficient. The model's ability to reproduce heat conduction transfer is validated via a measurement campaign performed on an asphalt car park during hot days. The mean daily RMSE between estimated and observed surface temperature is 0.86°C, and 0.72°C, 0.58°C, 0.26°C and 0.13°C respectively at 5cm-, 10cm-, 34cm- and 50cm-depths. Performances obtained using different node distributions are discussed and compared with results from the literature. The model is more efficient than most of the other models applied under similar conditions. Finally, application of the proposed model on a yearly basis demonstrates that the accuracy loss caused by the decrease in the number of nodes is higher for clear and sunny days. •We propose a soil model dedicated to the assessment of climate adaptation strategies.•Computed surface temperature and temperature at several depths are validated against measurements.•An overall sensitivity analysis of the model parameters is performed.•Different convection flow modes – forced, mixed and natural – are investigated.•The model's performance with optimized mesh is compared with that of the literature.