[Bldg-sim] CFD Software for Built Environment

eric wang shaojieworld2006 at yahoo.com
Wed Sep 10 07:42:02 PDT 2008


Antixs,
 
Airpak is specificly designed for indoor application. It has the modules for table, human and fan etc. Also you don't need other softwares to generate the meshes because it has the mesh generator. You should be aware the mesh is coarse and it is difficult to get good meshes near the boundary layers. However, the engineers don't care if the Y plus value is less than 1. As fas as I know, Fluent and Airpak are both used by A/E firms. Per my experience, the 2D color vector maps  and movies are good to show your clients in the presentations. As solid design tool for HVAC industries, CFD has s long way to go.
 
 
HTP
 
Shaojie
 
 
On Wed, 9/10/08, antixs antixs <antixs.antixs at gmail.com> wrote:

From: antixs antixs <antixs.antixs at gmail.com>
Subject: Re: [Bldg-sim] CFD Software for Built Environment
To: "Paul Carey" <Paul at zed-uk.com>
Cc: bldg-sim at lists.onebuilding.org
Date: Wednesday, September 10, 2008, 9:35 AM



Paul,
Thanks for such detailed information! They are really helpful. Do you have any experience with Airpak and Flovent? Heard that these two tools are specially tailored for built environment.

Thanks again.

antixs


On Wed, Sep 10, 2008 at 4:39 PM, Paul Carey <Paul at zed-uk.com> wrote:



Antixs
 
I think this depends largely on your budget and proficiency.
 
If you want to go full on with CFD, then I'd suggest Fluent (http://www.fluent.com/) everyday.  It is very widely used and well trusted tool.  ICEM is a good meshing tool, but we like Pointwise and Gridgen for it's meshing simplicity.
 
Other than that, I know CCM+ from CD-Adapco (http://www.cd-adapco.com/) is very good too.  Makes the job quite easy.  These tools are very expensive though.
 
If you want the same sort of capability and are willing to use mainly text input then I'd suggest OpenFoam (http://www.openfoam.org) - a very powerful open source CFD tool.  You could use something like pointwise to mesh it, output a fluent case file and then openfoam has it's own fluent case file converter program which you could use to then convert it and process it.  You'd probably need a decent post processor too, but clearly then you are only paying for those programs as openfoam itself is free.    If you can do it all by text then you wouldn't need to pay anything at all.  It will require you to use Linux though.  I saw a pre-compiled bootable live CD distro of this recently which was quite impressive so it allows you to check it out just by inserting CD into computer and booting to it.  The link for that is:  http://www.caelinux.com/CMS/
 
 
Of the cheaper and possibly more usable programs for quick built environment analysis.  Cham Pheonics (http://www.cham.co.uk/)  is good value for money.  It's Flair add on is pretty simple to use.  I'd still personally get a good CAD program to make sure your geometry is spot on before importing it, but then it would do the job well.  A lot of companies use it becasue of it's relative simplicity and good price.
 
Another which is aimed at non-CFD experts is DesignBuilder CFD (http://www.designbuilder.co.uk/).  It is in beta test stage and looks promising.  It'll be great for simple stuff.  Wouln't recommend anything that uses just cartesian grids for complex jobs, but for the large majority of jobs it will suit, especially if it's internal room flows, etc.  Should be quite competitive on the price too.
 
Hope that helps.
Regards
Paul
 


Dr Paul Carey
Director

Zero Energy Design Ltd
10A Portland Place
2-22 Mottram Road
Stalybridge
SK15 3AD
UK

T:  +44 0161 3386200
F:  +44 0161 3031281
M:  +44 0789 4098012
E:  paul at zed-uk.com

http://www.zed-uk.com/
 
 
 
 
 
 




From: bldg-sim-bounces at lists.onebuilding.org [mailto:bldg-sim-bounces at lists.onebuilding.org] On Behalf Of antixs antixs
Sent: 10 September 2008 05:13

To: bldg-sim at lists.onebuilding.org
Subject: [Bldg-sim] CFD Software for Built Environment





Hi all,
 
Just wonder what CFD softwares are popularly used for analyzing built environemnt in architect/MEP consulting firms? Also which one is relatively eaiser to use?
 
Many thanks.
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