● Local air quality may be poor , for example , if the building is next to a busy road ;
● High noise levels may make it hard to open windows ;
● If the local urban area is very dense , buildings will block the wind path ;
● Security concerns may prevent windows from opening ;
Despite the potential challenges , the benefits of passive ventilation often make it an option that designers should explore during the building design process . Although an attractive option , it isn ’ t easy to entirely rely on this solution without proof of performance . This is where computational fluid dynamics simulations can assist , allowing designers to validate the natural airflow within a building and to use it to investigate how building clearance affects the microclimate and natural ventilation within a building cluster .
Computational Fluid Dynamics Simulation in DeLIGHT Homes Housing Design
What is Computational Fluid Dynamics
Computational Fluid Dynamics ( CFD ) is the science of predicting fluid flow , heat transfer , chemical reactions , and related phenomena using applied mathematics , physics , and computational software . CFD simulation effectively visualises how fluid flows and interacts with objects , considering the fluid ’ s velocity , pressure , temperature , and density in motion . CFD takes the wind speed and prevailing wind directions that have been experienced during different time frames to ensure structural integrity under a high wind load , enabling engineers and architects to provide a comfortable and safe environment . In urban areas , the prevailing winds are unavoidably modified due to the increasing number of closely laced high-rise buildings that significantly alter the natural ventilation behaviour . CFD simulation predicts an airflow and heat transfer to create a comfortable , healthy , and energy-efficient space ( CIDB Malaysia , 2020b ).
CFD was used to simulate the natural air flow or prevailing wind scenario for DeLIGHT Homes ( CIDB Malaysia , 2020a ). The simulation and analysis were done using STAR-CCM + CFD software . The building model comprises 16 storeys and 167 house units . The objective of this simulation is to obtain the natural airflow ( prevailing wind ) velocity profile : 1 . Vertically across the entire building 2 . Horizontally across floors of the building
Simulation Setup
The simulation of the DeLIGHT Homes building was carried out under a steady-state condition , based on the assumption that the top and two sides of the domain faces are symmetrical as shown in Figure 3 , and is further explained in Table 1 .
Figure 3 : ( Left ) DeLIGHT Homes building model in an isometric view , ( Right ) The boundary condition of the objects
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