A comparison of wind–tunnel experiments and computational simulations of dispersion in the environs of buildings

Abstract

A comparison is made between wind–tunnel experiments and computer (CFD) simulations of the dispersion of buoyant and dense gas releases, close to one or more buildings. The simulations were undertaken on a work–station platform, using a standard commercial CFD code, and were subject to realistic constraints on run–times and model sizes. Good agreement is found for the simplest case, although it is noted that the simulations still contain significant numerical diffusion errors. Poorer agreement is found for the geometrically more complex cases. It is concluded that accurate simulation of the dispersion of a buoyant or dense gas cloud in the environs of one or more irregularly shaped buildings is too ambitious on a work–station platform at the present time.