Wind, Heat Island and Thermal Comfort with Community Plan

Using SimScale
1

Hi everyone,

I’m a complete beginner to CFD and currently learning to use SimScale. I’m working on an urban microclimate study for a site in Cape Town (here’s one) and have managed to upload a 3D model (buildings + terrain) as a STEP file.

However, I’m struggling to understand the terminology and overall workflow*—especially using the Community (Free) plan*.

My goal is to simulate three things:

  1. Pedestrian Wind Comfort
    I’d like to understand how wind flows between the buildings at street level.

  2. Urban Heat Island (UHI)
    I want to simulate how solar radiation heats up surfaces like buildings and the ground.

  3. Thermal Comfort (UTCI)
    Ultimately, I’d like to generate a map showing how hot or comfortable it would feel for a person, combining wind and temperature effects.

I only have access to the Community plan and am not sure:

  • Which simulation types I should choose for each of these goals

  • Whether these need to be separate simulations or can be combined

  • What the basic step-by-step workflow (“click path”) looks like

If anyone could outline the correct process—or even just point me to the right simulation types and key steps—I would really appreciate it.

Thank you for your time and guidance!