CFD simulations pertaining to flow, thermal, reactions, combustions and coupled analysis are commonly used in wide range of industrial sectors – Automotive, Aviation, Aerospace, Energy, Power and the list goes on. CFD analysis plays a vital role in the sector of Architecture, Engineering and Construction, commonly known as AEC. CFD simulations provides the architects and engineers a wide perspective to evaluate the heat ventilation and air conditioning performance, thermal behaviour and dispersion, contaminant dispersion, Fire and smoke dynamics and risk mitigation from the days of design process.
CFD simulations provides the visualization of the thermal and flow behaviours in the buildings and provides all sorts of data to improve and optimize the flow parameters to the requirement in affordable cost and time in hand. This enables the engineers to architect the data centres, clean rooms, auditoriums and Institutions with efficient heat ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) with less auxiliary power consumption.
With the help of CFD simulations, Engineers of AEC industry can,
Optimize Heat Ventilation & Air Conditioning (HVAC) and its components
CFD helps to evaluate the HVAC and its components in the selection and design phase of the system. It quantifies the effectiveness and efficiency of the HVAC units. Buildings utilize chillers, fans, blowers, exhausts and other units to ventilate the heat inside the rooms and to effectively condition the environment to the comfort. Simulating the units with its capacity and evaluating the type and positions of the louver and diffuser units, provides the thermal and flow patterns in the room and the equipment in the room. This helps us to design the HVAC system for its best efficiency and effectiveness.
Quantify Wind loads on the structures
Tall buildings, Solar structures, offshore platforms, and blunt structures experience the effects of heavy winds and vortices. CFD simulation provides quantifiable data to design the structures and reinforcements to tackle the effects of winds load and vortices street. The effect of wind load varies by the direction of the wind, velocity magnitude, turbulence, shape of the structure and various associated parameters. These can be studied in detail for the different design iterations and optimizations can be performed to avoid over or under design.
Visualize the Flow pattern
Flow inside the room changes with the position, types and flow velocity of the air from the vents. Louver and diffusers play a vital role in controlling the parameters for flow. Selection of diffuser geometry and its position in the room varies based on the requisites of cooling, if it’s a data centre, the main requirement to cool down the servers and its equipment and avoid hot spots whereas in a working area the scenario changes to maintain the thermal comfort to an apt condition and avoid cold spots. Based on the requisites the flow patterns are set to perform its task to its highest effectivity
Assure Air Quality and ACPH
Air quality is a vital factor for an HVAC design. ASHRAE standards provide a brief requirement on the air quality and air change per hour requirement (ACPH) for various applications. Continuous ventilation of stale air and intake of good air helps to maintain the air quality. Through CFD simulation, we can determine the ageing of air in various regions of the rooms, buildings, and closed structures and optimized to maintain the indoor air quality.
Ensure Thermal Comfort
Next to air quality, it is mandatory to maintain thermal comfort. Thermal comfort may be heating or cooling the rooms or buildings to ensure that the people inside the indoor space feel comfy. Too much of cooling or heat may affect comfort. It is vital to maintain an evenly spread and distributed heat load, there should not be any cold or hot spots, wake spots, stall regions etc. to maintain adequate air quality and thermal comfort. CFD simulation helps to visualize the flow and identify the thermal behaviour inside the room or building and sort out the remedies in the design phase itself. It provides all details like distributed temperature, hot spot, cold spot, air ageing, humidity etc. to design for better comfort
Track Contaminate migrations and evacuation
Contaminant migration and tracking are vital in hospitals, clean rooms, Kitchen ventilation and Car park ventilation. The concentration of contaminants can be quantified and tracked for the flow pattern. Car park ventilation uses to find the Co2 concentration to validate the air quality and visibility parameters to evaluate the evacuation to avoid congestion or any risk mitigation whereas in hospitals negative pressure should be ensured to migrate any infectious concentration of strain to be evacuated before a local spread.
Risk mitigation with Fire and Smoke dynamics
Fire simulations are performed for a wide range of enclosed structures like tunnels, parking spaces, large buildings, hospitals, institutions etc. This is to study the fire spread for the given airflow and position the fire safety unit, fire exits, large exits, calculate ASET and RSET and Damage control. This is also incorporated with smoke dynamics analysis to evaluate the visibility during such event and possible reduction of mishaps.
Improve Energy efficiency
CFD simulation helps HVAC design with proper air flow, quality, ACPH and comfort without hot or cold spots and minimal pressure drop will allow designers to provide highly energy-efficient ventilation system. This reduces the consumption of energy and paves the path for green building and ratings.
Graphler Technology, one of the fastest growing product design companies in India. Our CFD Analysis Services holds great promise for the AEC industry, giving architects and engineers the ability to predict and optimize the performance of buildings in the early stages of the design process. We have a team of experts specialized in FEA Consulting Services, 3D CAD Design and 3D Modelling Services in India.
