CFD simulation for pedestrian comfort and wind safety in VIT campus for wind resource management

Abstract

Recent researches on Computational Wind Engineering (CWE) studies widely focus on wind pressure coefficients and wind flow field for the aerodynamic design of buildings, urban planning and dispersion studies. Nowadays, CWE had been widely used for identifying the critical wind locations on the field for warning the pedestrians as well as harnessing the wind. Hence, highly functional regions like universities are currently equipping micro wind turbines, and roof-mounted wind turbines to meet their demands. This study focused on exploiting the wind flow conditions around the premises and wind force characteristics of the buildings situated at VIT Chennai premises for effective utilization of wind energy and determining the hot spots of unfavourable wind. By introducing CFD simulation earlier into the design process, it is easy to assess the wind resource conditions, pedestrian safety and comfort. However, the accuracy and reliability of CFD simulations can easily be compromised. For this reason, several sets of best practice guidelines have been developed in the past decades. Based on the best practices, this work presents the CFD simulation and framework for evaluating pedestrian comfort and possible areas to commission small wind turbines in the VIT campus. The simulations for assessing the wind flow conditions are carried out based on the k-∊ realizable turbulent model with high-quality grid-based convergence. The preliminary results can ensure wind comfort, safety and wind resources with CFD and add to enriched wind environmental quality in living.