Research Areas

• Building and Environmental Aerodynamics

• Urban Climatology and Meteorology
  
  Please, see also the following TV contributions (in German):

• TV report in the science program "P.M. Wissen" (ServusTV)
  This report examines the effects of greenery in cities on the climate and air quality in urban areas.
  In a first part, avenue trees and hedge rows in urban street canyons are used as an example to explain how they influence ventilation by natural wind and the distribution of air pollutants released by traffic in their immediate surroundings. The second part introduces the phenomenon of nocturnal cold air flows and shows their importance for the cooling of cities during summer nights.

• TV contribution for the science program "W wie Wissen" (ARD)
  This contribution deals with nocturnal cold air flows, which occur in relatively windless and cloudless summer nights. Using the example of studies for the city of Mannheim, it explains how corridors for the inflow of cold air can be created through well-considered building development and the arrangement of open spaces, so that as many city dwellers as possible can benefit from nightly cooling.
   

• TV contribution for the science programs "Gut zu Wissen" (BR) and "Xenius" (Arte)
  The contribution looks at avenue trees and hedge rows in urban street canyons, explains their impact on natural ventilation, and addresses the associated effects on vehicle emissions.

Specific Research Interests

• Flow and turbulence in and above plant canopies
• Pollutant dispersion in the urban environment
• Wind erosion (soil and snow) and sheltering effect of vegetation
• Vegetative climate change adaptation measures for urban heat islands

Selected Publications

• Papp, B., Kristof, G., Gromke, C. (2021) Application and assessment of a GPU-based LES method for predicting dynamic wind loads on buildings, Journal of Wind Engineering and Industrial Aerodynamics, Vol. 217, 104739 [DOI]
• Gromke, C., Ruck, B. (2021) Passenger car-induced lateral aerodynamic loads on cyclists during overtaking. Journal of Wind Engineering and Industrial Aerodynamics, Vol. 209, 104489 [DOI]
• Gromke, C., Ruck, B. (2018) On Wind Forces in the Forest Edge Region during Extreme Gust Passages and Their Implications for Damage Patterns. Boundary-Layer Meteorology [DOI]
• Gromke, C., Jamarkattel, N., Ruck, B. (2016) Influence of roadside hedgerows on air quality in urban street canyons. Atmospheric Environment, Vol. 139, pp. 75-86 [DOI]
• Gromke, C., Blocken, B., Janssen, W., Merema, B., van Hooff, T., Timmermans, H. (2015) CFD analysis of transpirational cooling by vegetation: Case study for specific meteorological conditions during a heat wave in Arnheim, Netherlands. Building and Environment, Vol. 82, 16 [DOI]
• Gromke, C., Horeneder, S., Walter, B., Lehning, M. (2014) Snow particle characteristics in the saltation layer. Journal of Glaciology, Vol. 60, pp. 1-9 [DOI]
• Burri, K., Gromke, C., Graf, F. (2013) Mycorrhizal fungi protect the soil from wind erosion: A wind tunnel study, Land Degradation and Development, Vol. 24, pp. 385-392. [DOI]
• Gromke, C. (2011) A vegetation modeling concept for Building and Environmental Aerodynamics wind tunnel tests and its application in pollutant dispersion studies, Environmental Pollution, Vol. 159, pp. 2094-2099. [DOI]
• Gromke, C., Ruck, B. (2009) On the impact of trees on dispersion processes of traffic emissions in street canyons, Boundary-Layer Meteorology, Vol.131, pp. 19-34. [DOI]
• Gromke, C., Buccolieri, R., Di Sabatino, S., Ruck, B. (2008) Dispersion study in a street canyon with tree planting by means of wind tunnel and numerical investigations - Evaluation of CFD data with experimental data, Atmospheric Environment, Vol. 42, pp. 8640-8650. [DOI]

More comprehensive publication list
 

Professional Career & Activities 

• Dipl.-Ing. Civil Engineering with focus Structural Engineering at RWTH Aachen University, Germany (2004)
• Research assistant at Institute for Hydromechanics, University of Karlsruhe, Germany (2004-2008): PhD thesis - Pollutant dispersion in urban street canyons with avenue-trees (2008), www.codasc.de
• Research associate at Institute for Snow and Avalanche Research SLF, Davos, Switzerland (2008-2012): Wind tunnel and field studies of snow/soil atmosphere exchange processes
• Research fellow (Marie Curie) at Eindhoven University of Technology, Netherlands (2012-2014): Numerical simulation of flow, pollutant dispersion and climate change adaptation measures in the built environment
• Research assistant at KIT Institute for Hydromechanics, group: Laboratory for Building- and Environmental Aerodynamics (2014- ): Storm damages in forest stands, interaction between extreme gusts and forest edges