Wind Loads on an Isolated Building

Overview

This project analyses the steady-state flow around an isolated building. The aim is to validate the flow around the building against experiments carried out at the Japan Wind Institute [1]. An atmospheric boundary layer profile is implemented at the inflow.

The numerical simulation results of SimScale were compared with the experimental results.

Import validation project into workspace

Geometry

The geometry is a rectangular block which was created based on the physical setup.

Fig.1. Physical setup and atmospheric boundary condition [2].

Analysis type and Domain

The “Hex-dominant parametric (only CFD)” tool was used to mesh the domain. Different mesh refinements were applied to get a good quality mesh.

Tool Type : OPENFOAM®

Analysis Type : Incompressible Steady-state (Turbulent)

Mesh and Element types :

Table 1: Mesh Metrics¶
Mesh type	Number of volumes	Type
Hex-dominant parametric	$1.411 \times 10^{7}$ $1.411 \times 10^{7}$	3D hex

Simulation Setup

Fluid:

Air with kinematic viscosity of $1.5 \times 10^{- 5} k g / m s$

1.5 \times 10^{- 5} k g / m s

is assigned as the domain fluid. The boundary conditions for the simulation are shown in Table 2.

Boundary Conditions:

Table 2: Boundary Conditions for Isolated Building simulation¶
Parameter	Top, Left and right	Inlet	Outlet	Building and bottom walls
Velocity	Slip wall	From File	Zero Gradient	No-Slip wall
Pressure	Slip wall	Zero Gradient	$0.0 P a$ $0.0 P a$	Zero Gradient
$k$ $k$	Slip wall	Same as Initial value	Zero Gradient	Wall Functions
omega	Slip wall	Same as Initial value	Zero Gradient	Wall Functions

The velocity at inlet is assigned through the file-upload option provided on the platform. The file corresponds to the velocity profile provided by experiments [1].

Results

The numerical simulation results of longitudinal velocity at different planes are compared with experimental results provided in study [1].

Fig.3. Velocity streamlines imposed on pressure contours.

References

[1]	(1, 2, 3, 4) http://www.aij.or.jp/jpn/publish/cfdguide/index_e.htm

[2]	Cooperative project for CFD prediction of pedestrian wind environment in then Architectural Institute of Japan

Disclaimer

This offering is not approved or endorsed by OpenCFD Limited, producer and distributor of the OpenFOAM software and owner of the OPENFOAM® and OpenCFD® trade marks. OPENFOAM® is a registered trade mark of OpenCFD Limited, producer and distributor of the OpenFOAM software.

Last updated: April 4th, 2019

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