Atmospheric boundary layer
Atmospheric boundary layer and wind simulation in OpenFOAM
Wind around buildings and terrain with a proper ABL inlet profile, wall functions and roughness — pedestrian comfort, dispersion and wind loading.
What it is
Wind near the ground is not uniform: it follows a logarithmic profile set by terrain roughness. An ABL setup imposes that profile at the inlet and keeps it consistent with the wall treatment, so the profile does not decay across an empty domain.
What the application sets up
- Logarithmic inlet velocity profile with roughness length
- Consistent ground wall functions
- Turbulence inlet quantities matched to the profile
- A domain sized to the building or terrain footprint
Typical uses
- Pedestrian wind comfort around buildings
- Pollutant and gas dispersion
- Wind loading on structures
- Wind-farm siting and terrain effects
Industries
Sectors where this analysis is routinely asked for.
- Wind engineering
- Built environment
- Renewable energy
- Environmental consultancy
What comes out
- Wind speed maps at height
- Facade and roof pressure zones
- Turbulence intensity profiles
- Sheltering and acceleration effects
OpenFOAM solvers
simpleFoampimpleFoam
Selected and configured for you from the analysis type. You can still see every dictionary the application writes.
In every tier
This analysis type is in the free build. The free tier limits mesh size to 250,000 cells and solving to one core — not which physics you may use.
On accuracy, plainly.
Every analysis type is exercised end to end on every pass — its case is generated, meshed and run — which establishes that the setup is right, not that the answer matches your geometry. No CFD result is evidence until it is checked against something you trust: a measurement, a hand calculation, or a mesh-refinement study the application will run for you. Treat these results with the judgement you would apply to any CFD you set up yourself.