Improvements to User-friendliness of a Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) Code for Simulation of Air Movement in Buildings.

Starting from the basic governing equations for fluid flows, a three-dimensional computational fluid dynamics (CFD) code is described. The pre-processing and post-processing software was integrated with the CFD code to form a more user-friendly computer package. This new computer package has been used to carry out several simulations on air and smoke movement in atrium with balconies. It has been found that the pre?processing and post-processing software can greatly reduce the data preparation and analysis time. It can also reduce the likelihood of making errors in data entry. Some of the simulation results on air movement have been compared with results from a physical model at Melbourne University. Qualitatively, there appears to be good agreement between the simulation results and those from the physical model.