Figure 1. Meshed building model geometry.
Figure 2. CFD Results from Fluent, velocity vectors colored by velocity magnitude with pressure distribution on the building geometry. (Click to enlarge.)
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The geometry was created in Rhinoceros and meshed with ANSA for thermal analysis in RadTherm. The high resolution CFD mesh was generated in Gambit. A steady-state CFD analysis was performed with bulk air temp of 6.8°C and wind speed of 5 m/s from the north, representing a cold wind—a common occurrence for autumn in this Houghton, MI, location.
Preliminary thermal results were developed by a RadTherm thermal analysis with RadTherm's built-in wind model. The wall temperatures were exported to Fluent to be used as a boundary condition profile. To read more about data exchange between RadTherm and CFD, click here.
After the CFD run was converged, the standard Fluent export command was used and "RadTherm" chosen as the file type. This exports a Patran Neutral file containing geometry and convection data (convection coefficients and temperatures on an element-level basis). These data are read into RadTherm as a boundary condition for the external surfaces of the buildings.
RadTherm was then used to perform a complete multimodel thermal analysis, including transient solar with loading through the windows. See animations below. The model file and CFD results file can be downloaded from links at the end of this article.
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