Evaluation of CFD simulations with wind tunnel experiments: pressure coefficients at openings in sawtooth building

Abstract

Wind tunnel experiments and Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) simulations are used to analyze natural ventilation in a sawtooth roof building. A 1:10 scale model is tested in an atmospheric boundary layer wind tunnel. The CFD simulations are performed with Ansys CFX software. The aim of this study is to evaluate the reliability of CFD simulation in predicting pressure data at opening height in a sawtooth roof building with wind tunnel data. The model is evaluated for prevailing wind in five directions: 0 and 45° (air extractor sheds), 90° (neutral situation) and 135 and 180° (air collector sheds). The computational grid resolution shows that the inclusion of prisms and the increase of the grid refinement in the building’s surface cause insignificant differences in Cp (wind pressure coefficient). In general, the error values below 10% indicate a good agreement between CFD simulations and wind tunnel data.