Using virtual reality technologies to visualize parameters of urban microclimate

Abstract

Abstract Introduction. Methods of computational fluid dynamics (CFD) are widely used in architecture and civil engineering to study the microclimate of a city or simulate the wind regime of a building. Using virtual reality (VR) technologies to assess local airflow parameters in respect of an individual can significantly increase the informativity of the microclimate simulation. The process of simulation and post-processing of hydrodynamic simulation problems in classical CAE (computer-aided engineering) packages is difficult for non-professional researchers and does not provide a flexible interaction mechanism for specialists in the remote work environment. The solution is to develop an external universal post-processor supporting modern technologies of virtual reality and network interaction. Materials and methods. A model of an airflow around a group of buildings was used as the test data, and the results were exported to an external visualizer. The solution employs the Unity3D engine, and the Ansys Fluent package is used as the data source. Results. The paper describes the general architecture and implementation details of the PLT-Sim prototype, which includes basic tools for interactive visualization of vector airflow data in the virtual reality mode, as well as the system designated for importing results from different modeling systems. The stereoscopic representation of the image of airflow velocities makes it possible to implement new mechanics of interaction with computer models from the point of view of pedestrians. Conclusions. Using new methods of VR visualization of experiments in the real time makes it possible to more accurately substantiate the results of research activities. The proposed solution will allow to predict and detect design errors, as well as facilitate remote collaboration between researchers focused on research tasks in the context of a pandemic. This software and hardware solution is one of the first prototypes that implements an approach to visualizing microclimate and wind comfort data as viewed by an individual pedestrian.