Low-Reynolds number mixing ventilation flows:impact of physical and numerical diffusion on flow and dispersion

\u3cp\u3eQuality assurance in computational fluid dynamics (CFD) is essential for an accurate and reliable assessment of complex indoor airflow. Two important aspects are the limitation of numerical diffusion and the appropriate choice of inlet conditions to ensure the correct amount of physical diffusion. This paper presents an assessment of the impact of both numerical and physical diffusion on the predicted flow patterns and contaminant distribution in steady Reynolds-averaged Navier–Stokes (RANS) CFD simulations of mixing ventilation at a low slot Reynolds number (Re≈2,500). The simulations are performed on five different grids and with three different spatial discretization schemes; i.e. first-order upwind (FOU), second-order upwind (SOU) and QUICK. The impact of physical diffusion is assessed by varying the inlet turbulence intensity (TI) that is often less known in practice. The analysis shows that: (1) excessive numerical and physical diffusion leads to erroneous results in terms of delayed detachment of the wall jet and locally decreased velocity gradients; (2) excessive numerical diffusion by FOU schemes leads to deviations (up to 100%) in mean velocity and concentration, even on very high-resolution grids; (3) difference between SOU and FOU on the coarsest grid is larger than difference between SOU on coarsest grid and SOU on 22 times finer grid; (4) imposing TI values from 1% to 100% at the inlet results in very different flow patterns (enhanced or delayed detachment of wall jet) and different contaminant concentrations (deviations up to 40%); (5) impact of physical diffusion on contaminant transport can markedly differ from that of numerical diffusion.\u3c/p\u3

Wall-resolved versus wall-modeled LES of the flow field and surface forced convective heat transfer for a low-rise building

Large eddy simulation (LES) is widely used to investigate the aerodynamics and convective heat transfer (CHT) at the surfaces of sharp-edged bluff bodies for a wide range of Reynolds (Re) numbers. Due to the heavy computational costs associated with implicit filtering in LES at high Reynolds number flows (Re ≥ 105), wall-modeled (WM) rather than wall-resolved (WR) LES is often adopted. However, the performance of LES-WM for such applications has not yet been systematically investigated. Therefore, this study evaluates the performance of LES-WM and LES-WR for the flow and thermal field at the facades of a low-rise building immersed in an atmospheric boundary layer. Four grids are constructed for LES-WM, each employing different resolution at the building surfaces reaching maximum non-dimensional wall distance y+ = 43, 57, 70, and 95. In addition, the performance of two wall functions, namely the Werner and Wengle and the enhanced wall function is investigated. The results show that the use of LES-WM can result in significant deviations in the predicted near-facade flow pattern and the surface convective heat transfer coefficient (CHTC). Grid resolution significantly impacts the CHTC results and deviations go up to 88% (at the base of the windward facade). Considerable deviations among the employed wall functions are apparent only on the finest grid. In this case, the implementation of the enhanced wall function indicates better performance compared to the non-blended law of the wall (combined with the Werner and Wengle) for CHTC in the regions of the leeward facade where the flow remains attached to the wall. The deviation of the enhanced wall function for surface-averaged CHTC is found to be 10.8% against the wall-resolved LES results, while for the non-blended law of the wall this is 19.2%.</p

Local-scale forcing effects on wind flows in an urban environment: Impact of geometrical simplifications

Wind flow in urban areas is strongly affected by the urban geometry. In the last decades most of the geometries used to reproduce urban areas, both in wind-tunnel (WT) tests and Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) simulations, were simplified compared to reality in order to limit experimental effort and computational costs. However, it is unclear to which extent these geometrical simplifications can affect the reliability of the numerical and experimental results. The goal of this paper is to quantify the deviations caused by geometrical simplifications. The case under study is the district of Livorno city (Italy), called \ue2\u80\u9cQuartiere La Venezia\ue2\u80\u9d. The 3D steady Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) simulations are solved, first for a single block of the district, then for the whole district. The CFD simulations are validated with WT tests at scale 1:300. Comparisons are made of mean wind velocity profiles between WT tests and CFD simulations, and the agreement is quantified using four validation metrics (FB, NMSE, R and FAC1.3). The results show that the most detailed geometry provides improved performance, especially for wind direction \uce\ub1 = 240\uc2\ub0 (22% difference in terms of FAC1.3)

Effect of pitch angle on power performance and aerodynamics of a vertical axis wind turbine

Due to growing interest in wind energy harvesting offshore as well as in the urban environment, vertical axis wind turbines (VAWTs) have recently received renewed interest. Their omni-directional capability makes them a very interesting option for use with the frequently varying wind directions typically encountered in the built environment while their scalability and low installation costs make them highly suitable for offshore wind farms. However, they require further performance optimization to become competitive with horizontal axis wind turbines (HAWTs) as they currently have a lower power coefficient (CP). This can be attributed both to the complexity of the flow around VAWTs and the significantly smaller amount of research they have received. The pitch angle is a potential parameter to enhance the performance of VAWTs. The current study investigates the variations in loads and moments on the turbine as well as the experienced angle of attack, shed vorticity and boundary layer events (leading edge and trailing edge separation, laminar-to-turbulent transition) as a function of pitch angle using Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) calculations. Pitch angles of −7° to +3° are investigated using Unsteady Reynolds-Averaged Navier-Stokes (URANS) calculations while turbulence is modeled with the 4-equation transition SST model. The results show that a 6.6% increase in CP can be achieved using a pitch angle of −2° at a tip speed ratio of 4. Additionally, it is found that a change in pitch angle shifts instantaneous loads and moments between upwind and downwind halves of the turbine. The shift in instantaneous moment during the revolution for various pitch angles suggests that dynamic pitching might be a very promising approach for further performance optimization

CFD simulations of wind loads on a container ship: validation and impact of geometrical simplifications

Due to the increasing windage area of container ships, wind loads are playing a more important role in navigating the ship at open sea and especially through harbor areas. This paper presents 3D steady RANS CFD simulations of wind loads on a container ship, validation with wind-tunnel measurements and an analysis of the impact of geometrical simplifications. For the validation, CFD simulations are performed in a narrow computational domain resembling the cross-section of the wind tunnel. Blockage effects caused by the domain boundaries are studied by comparing CFD results in the wind tunnel domain and a larger domain. The average absolute difference in numerically simulated and measured total wind load on the ship ranges from 37.9% for a simple box-shaped representation of the ship to only 5.9% for the most detailed model. Modeling the spaces in-between containers on the deck shows a 10.4% average decrease in total wind load on the ship. Modeling a more slender ship hull while keeping the projected front and side area of the ship similar, yields an average decrease in total wind load of 5.9%. Blockage correction following the approach of the Engineering Sciences Date Unit underestimates the maximum lateral wind load up to 17.5%

Assessing stack ventilation strategies in the continental climate of Beijing using CFD simulations

The performance of a stack ventilated building compared with two other building designs have been predicted numerically for ventilation and thermal comfort effects in a typical climate of Beijing, China. The buildings were configured based on natural ventilation. Using actual building sizes, Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) models were developed, simulated and analysed in Fluent, an ANSYS platform. This paper describes the general design consideration that has been incorporated, the ventilation strategies and the variation in meshing and boundary conditions. The predicted results show that the ventilation flow rates are important parameters to ensure fresh air supply. A Predicted Mean Vote (PMV) model based on ISO-7730 (2005) and the Predicted Percentage Dissatisfied (PPD) indices were simulated using Custom Field Functions (CFF) in the fluent design interface for transition seasons of Beijing. The results showed that the values of PMV are not within the standard acceptable range defined by ISO-7730