Wind Flow Simulation in the Vicinity of Tall Buildings Through CFD

Abstract

Now-a-days the tall buildings are the symbol of urbanization. Lateral forces are the major factor which distinguishes the tall buildings from other low rise buildings and wind force is the most significant lateral force on the tall buildings. Wind around high-rise buildings in cities may create serious problems even at the pedestrian level. This problem may lead to discomfort of the pedestrians and occupants of the low rise building near tall buildings. The level of disturbance to the users of pedestrian areas can be different depending on the characteristics of the wind, including mean magnitude, uniformity, ambient temperature, etc. If wind characteristics are assessed properly, then remedial measures may be taken. The wind-tunnel experiments are considered to be the most suitable approach for the evaluation of such effects, but now-a-days Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) numerical techniques can be a good alternative to costly and time consuming experimentation. In this paper the issues of pedestrian wind environment near tall buildings and interference effect in two and three tall buildings is addressed. These tall buildings of same cross sections are placed in tandem. The shorter one (h) is placed in front of the taller building (2h). Effect of the presence of a shorter building in front of a taller building on the wind characteristics has been discussed. Another building of same height (h) as that of the shorter building is also introduced to investigate the effect in between two existing buildings. The effect of spacing to height ratio on pressure at pedestrian level is also developed through CFD. ANSYS FLUENT has been used for the simulation of the wind flow around buildings.

Effects of Fluid Viscous Damper on Reinforced Concrete Tall Building under Lateral Loading in Lagos, Nigeria

“…The influence of wind forces on the dynamics of tall building is a major factor that distinguish tall and low buildings. (Mittal et al, 2014). In figure 1, in Nigeria, five major groups was categorized for design processes and economy, with the mean wind speed ranging from 35 to 42 𝑚 𝑠 ⁄ (Category I), 42 to 45.8 𝑚 𝑠 ⁄ (Category II), 45.8 to 50 𝑚 𝑠 ⁄ (Category III), 50 to 55 𝑚 𝑠 ⁄ (Category IV) and 55 to 56 𝑚 𝑠 ⁄ (Category V), respectively (Onundi et al, 2009).…”

Wind Effects on Rectangular and Triaxial Symmetrical Tall Building Having Equal Area and Height

“…Tamura et al [31] performed a series of wind tunnel tests to determine the aerodynamic performance and pedestrian level wind characteristics of different super tall buildings having square, rectangular, and elliptic plan with corner cuts. Mittal et al [32] performed the numerical simulation on tall buildings and discussed the effect of the shorter building placed in front of a taller building. Blocken et al [33] conducted the CFD simulation of the atmospheric boundary layer and discussed the effect of using wall function.…”

A Numerical Analysis of Wind Flow in Urban Areas

“…Recently, many efforts have been made to study the urban wind environment, [1][2][3]. Blocken et al [1] studied on wind speed conditions in passages between parallel buildings to carry out the atmospheric boundary layer flow by using Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) method.…”

“…Blocken et al [1] studied on wind speed conditions in passages between parallel buildings to carry out the atmospheric boundary layer flow by using Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) method. The pedestrian wind environment near tall buildings and interference effect in two and three tall buildings was addressed by Mittal et al [2]. Effect of the presence of a shorter building in front of a taller building on the wind characteristics and effect of spacing to height ratio on pressure at pedestrian level were performed using CFD tools in ANSYS FLUENT software.…”