Computational Fluid Dynamics

Ecotect Visualization of WinAir output

Ecotect & Winair
It should be noted that all schemes we are looking at are for general conditions, i.e. it will probably not read the specifics of your geometry. Any detail finer than the anaylsis grid will be reduced.
 
Download WinAir
 
Install WinAir into you're c: drive, so that we have c:\WinAir\winAIR4.exe - this is necessary for ecotect to be able to find it.
First, setup the Analysis Grid...

• Fit our anaylsys grid to this object
• Adjust Grid Extents
  • Use manipulator buttons to situate the grid on the ground and make sure it is large enough in the Z dimension to allow for air to circulate over. You also need to provide a good amount of space beyond your objects for air to circulate past.

Export Panel, referenced below

• Grid Management
  • Change 'Number of Cells' to something reasonable - a higher cell number in each direction will give you better results, but cause the calculations to take longer. In general, you can multiple the three values to get a total cell count. Anything higher than 50,000 or so will be prohibitively high for calc times.
• Go to the Calculations Menu at bottom right (all within the analyis grid panel)
  • toggle CFD cell blockages, perform calculations... perimeters

Winair settings

THIS IS CRUCIAL Change panels, from the analysis grid panel to the export manager - this is the file with a red arrow coming out of it, almost at the last option in our panels

• Select Winair4
• Select Export Model data
• Match your settings to the image on the right
  • Make sure to input a wind speed and direction
  • Make sure to toggle on 'Run Winair Applications...' and 'Auto-start calculation'
  • THIS IS CRUCIAL Before running, make sure winair is installed in c:\WinAir - also, make sure you have set your computer clock to 2006, so that you will not get the trial expiration error in winair!
  • Run!

Winair should look like this if it is properly processing

Winair should appear, and you should see a graph plotting similar to the image to the right. When the graph levels out, it will return you to ecotect.
To visualize results:

• Under the anaylsis grid panel (Rightmost window)...
  
  • Under Calculations
  • Load CFD data
  • load output files - the file we want to load is OUTPUT in the winair director
  • It will default to showing you cell temperature. We are more interesting in Air Flow rate. Go to Grid Data & Scale and select this metric.
  • Adjust Grid Offset to see depth of simulation

Changing visualization to flow rate