Significant limitations in applying computational fluid dynamics (CFD) to predict room air distribution: guidelines for beginners.

Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) has been used to predict the indoor environment airflow and overall ventilation effectiveness of natural or mechanical air distribution systems. This paper highlights some applications and criticism work made on CFD in order to establish an understanding of the limitations of CFD in predicting room airflow. It is concluded that though CFD is a powerful tool for simulation, the software complexities, computational power and the level of expertise that CFD codes require shape the greatest challenges to beginners in this field.