Numerical Analysis of Flow in Building Arrangement: Computational Domain Discretization

Abstract

The progress in environmental investigations such as the analysis of building arrangements in an urban environment could not have been expanded without the use of computational fluid dynamics (CFD) as a research tool. The rapid development of numerical models results in improved correlations to results obtained with real data. Unfortunately, the computational domain discretization is a crucial step in CFD analysis which significantly influences the accuracy of the generated results. Hence an innovative approach to computational domain discretization using polyhedral elements is proposed. The results are compared to commonly applied tetrahedral and hexahedral elements as well as experimental results of particle image velocimetry (PIV). The performed research proves that the proposed method is promising as it allows for the reduction of both the numerical diffusion of the mesh as well as the time cost of preparing the model for calculation. In consequence, the presented approach allows for better results in less time.