Pedestrian wind comfort
Pedestrian wind comfort in OpenFOAM: wind at street level around buildings
Assess wind conditions at pedestrian height around a development — the accelerations between towers, the downwash off a facade, and whether a seating area is usable.
What it is
The same atmospheric flow as a wind-loading study, read at 1.5 metres instead of across the whole facade. Buildings accelerate wind into gaps and pull it down their windward faces, and the result is judged against comfort criteria for sitting, standing and walking rather than against a pressure.
What the application sets up
- An atmospheric boundary layer inlet with the right roughness and profile
- A domain sized around the development with the surrounding context included
- Meshing that resolves the gaps between buildings, where the accelerations are
- Multiple wind directions, since one direction is not an assessment
- Velocity sampled at pedestrian height, ready for comfort criteria
Typical uses
- Planning submissions requiring a wind comfort assessment
- Public realm and seating area design
- Entrance and podium downwash problems
- Testing whether a mitigation screen or canopy actually works
Industries
Sectors where this analysis is routinely asked for.
- Urban planning
- Property development
- Architecture
- Local authorities
What comes out
- Pedestrian-level wind speed maps
- Comfort classification by area
- Problem corners and gaps identified
- Mitigation option comparison
OpenFOAM solvers
simpleFoam
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.