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Application of CFD in Buildings
Last Updated: 2026-02-05 15:35:28
Abstract
Fundamentals, Applications and Project works in the area of CFD in buildings.
Objective
I- Understanding: - Basic principles of fluid flow & heat transfer - Basic concepts of CFD - Validation and verification, practical guidelines II- Application and project works of CFD in buildings. Use of D-ARCH CFD software. Students will have two projects: 1- Group projects: Week 1-to-3 Nov. Projects will be assigned by the tutors to the students organized in groups of 2. Projects will include canonical problems in two dimensions essentially. A report is to be handed out end of Nov. 2- Individual Projects: Week 4 Nov. to Christmas. These are individual projects, chosen by students from the list of items below. NOTE: Students enrolled in the “Integrated Design Project” course can use their Individual Project (this class) for their IDP project, provided (1) they attend this course (CFD in Buildings) and use the CFD code TransAT to benefit the support of the tutors.
Content
I. Fundamentals - Basic principles of fluid flow & heat transfer - Laminar versus turbulent flow - Forced vs. natural convection - Basic concepts of CFD (Discretization, schemes, solvers, etc.) - Turbulence modelling - Near-wall treatment - Validation and verification, practical guidelines II. Application of CFD for real problems including (Projects): 1. Wind – Urban Scale: students would use the building shape to determine locations for wind inlets and outlets based on façade pressures 2. Wind – Cross-ventilation: using the interior shape of a building with inlets and outlets to determine flow rates 3. Stack effect: on a windless day with people in the building, how much airflow would be anticipated airflow rate given inlets and outlets 4. Wind & heat removal: Given inlets and outlets with people in the building, how much heat is removed from the building 5. Solar chimney: given a building with a chimney, how much extra airflow is created if the chimney is solar (absorbs radiation) vs. typical (not designed to absorb radiation) 6. Plant/vegetation effects: Given a building with a courtyard, how much is cross-ventilation affected by including plants vs. not having plants or how will the plants affect stack venting. 7. Air pollution and contaminant dispersion
Resources
Lecture Notes
Material (pdf files) will be sent to the students before the start of the course.
Literature
We will update the material in due time. Main reference for fluid mechanics: J.H. Spurk, Fluid Mechanics, Springer Main reference for CFD:Ferziger and Peric, Computational Methods for Fluid Mechanics, Springer Main Wiki reference: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CFD_in_buildings Other useful papers: Link
Learning Materials (Links)
- Main link
- Information
- Additional links
- TransAT CFD webage
General Information
- Language
- English
- Levels
- MSC
- Frequency
- Yearly recurring
Examination
- Type
- graded semester performance
Course Components
| Type | Title | Time & Place | Hours |
|---|---|---|---|
| lecture |
Application of CFD in Buildings
Permission from lecturers required for all students.
Lessons in groups, alternating on site and online. No course on 22.10. (seminar week).
The lecturers will communicate the exact lesson times of ONLINE courses.
|
|
3 h weekly |