Turbulent wind flow through permeable claddings mounted on elevated scaffold using CFD simulation

• Main Authors: Ashish Agarwal, Hassan Irtaza
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Wiley 2021-06-01
• Series: Engineering Reports
• Subjects: debris nets; impermeable film; permeable nets; RANS; scaffolds
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.1002/eng2.12350

Abstract An extensive numerical study was carried out to evaluate the turbulent wind effects on permeable nets and impermeable film claddings mounted on elevated access scaffolding using computational fluid dynamics techniques. Debris net/sheet scaffold cladding was placed at a distance 1.5 m ahead of the cubical building. Permeable nets of various porosities and aerodynamic coefficients were simulated, and the effects of aerodynamic coefficients on the pressure coefficients were studied on the scaffolding. The airflow behavior around and through the claddings and the cubical building, were also investigated. Permeable claddings have been modeled as porous media following the Forchheimer equation. The renormalization group k–ε turbulence model using Reynolds averaged Navier–Stokes equations (RANS) was used to simulate turbulent wind through/around the scaffold cladding. Commercially available software ANSYS FLUENT 6.3 was used for simulation and analysis. Results showed that the force/pressure coefficients on permeable/debris net claddings are proportional to the aerodynamic coefficient.