A CFD Comsol model for simulating complex urban flow

Abstract

Flow modeling around buildings can be achieved either by using wind-tunnel studies or via the utilization of Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) techniques. Conducting wind-tunnel studies may be expensive and time consuming, /or environmental configurations. On the other hand, CFD can provide significant cost benefits for assessing and optimizing engineering design solutions related to environmental concerns and appear attractive as a potential alternative tool.The experiments in the wind tunnel is time consuming and expensive, especially in the case of the urban complexes configurations where it is often necessary to do many tests changes of parameters and configuration of the environment, which has oriented us towards the use of simulation. To do so Google Earth image of the fabric structure was used as a backdrop in the AC3D software. The outlines of the buildings were then traced to create polygons, which were then extruded to produce the 3D individual buildings. This study shows the feasibility of applying a COMSOL CFD model to simulate the airflow behavior in a vernacular urban area. The computational fluid dynamics software COMSOL is used to determine velocity field flow in complex morphological street network.