Computational fluid dynamics simulation and full-scale experimental model inter-comparison of the wind flow around a university campus

Abstract

In this article, results obtained from two computational fluid dynamics solvers, WindSim and OpenFOAM, have been compared for the wind flow around the University of Mauritius' campus for different wind directions, and a reference incident wind speed at diverse height above ground level. A grid resolution study is performed for both software and the mean differences of the two solvers with multiple turbulence models (standard k-ε, k-ε with Yap correction, and renormalization group k-ε) are analyzed with onsite measured data. The article concludes that the best results for the computational fluid dynamics simulation of the wind flow around buildings are obtained using OpenFOAM with k-ε turbulence model including Yap correction.

Numerical Method to Generate and Evaluate Environmental Wind Over Hills: Comparison of Pedestrian Winds Over Hills and Plains

“…The interaction of wind with these tall structures is known to alter the microclimate of the region, by accelerating wind in low pressure zones while stagnating pollutants at high pressure zones at pedestrian level. This leads to thermal discomfort of pedestrians as regulation of body temperature becomes difficult, added to settling pollutants leads to several diseases [1][2][3][4]. This was seen in 2020-2021 COVID19 outbreak in hill station of Mussoorie, the lack of ventilation due to altered pedestrian wind profile saw one section of the hill station reporting more cases, which matched with the satellite images of pollutant/viral load coagulation in that zone.…”