Computational fluid dynamics for non-experts: Development of a user-friendly CFD simulator (HNVR-SYS) for natural ventilation design applications

Abstract

Measuring the ventilation rate is crucial to ensuring the control of thermal comfort, energy saving, and emission of pollutants in greenhouses and animal houses. This is more difficult in naturally ventilated (NV) buildings because of the dynamic and complex air flow patterns caused by wind and buoyancy effects. In this study, a user-friendly computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulator is developed to analyse internal airflow patterns and ventilation rates of NV buildings, with the initial focus on agricultural buildings. The user-friendly CFD automation program, developed using the freely available open-source OpenFOAM and ParaView visualization toolkit, is aimed at non-CFD experts to help them obtain practical CFD solutions quickly. Users simply input building and ventilating configurations, outdoor wind conditions, topographical conditions, and information regarding plants or animals through user-friendly graphical user interfaces. General CFD processes are automated, and the quality of each process is controlled. After executing the program, a three-dimensional interactive visualization module is used for post-processing. It can ensure the flexibility and manageability of the model by automating predeveloped procedures in a user-interactive manner, thereby reducing time and effort. This paper describes the development process of automation interfaces.