cfd: Hurricane Irma

[thschrader]

Given:
A little house 9x9 m wide, 6 m high. Wind speed 250 km/h.
openFOAM/paraview calculates a resulting drag force of 370 kN (37 tons),
resulting lifting force 250 kN (25 tons). solver: simpleFoam.
If you check back the results with a"thumb-rule" (area 6x9 m, pressure at 250 km/h = 3 kN/m^2, shape factor 1,4)
you will get 226 kN drag force. I am not sure if the openFOAM-model fits better to reality,
but if so the florida folks should better visit an air-raid shelter.
Thomas

velocity_field.JPG (26.39 KiB) Viewed 1444 times

pressure_field.JPG (19.13 KiB) Viewed 1444 times

[ulrich1a]

Would it be useful to make a hole in the roof, in order to avoid the pressure difference that causes the lifting force?

[thschrader]

Would it be useful to make a hole in the roof, in order to avoid the pressure difference that causes the lifting force?

Mmmh...thats like opening a window. But in general you are right, avoid pressure differences.
What about the drag?
Thomas

[ulrich1a]

What about the drag?

You need a stable house with heavy walls. I have no idea to avoid the drag.
In the north see isles, they used timber framed houses. A flood did remove the wall out of the timber frame, but the upper floors stayed untouched. I do not think this is an option for a hurricane.

Ulrich

[Worufu]

Good simulation A solution can be the rounded edges on the roof, it is not a cheap solution, but can help to not detach the streamlines from the roof and reduces a lot the trail turbolence. Also the vortex generator at the base of the roof (all around to prevent every wind direction), helps again this effect, but I think in this case the mesh grid need a lot of resolution and calculation time.

Can you print a 3D view with streamline around the house?

[thschrader]

Can you print a 3D view with streamline around the house?

Hello Worufu,
I am not familiar with paraview, but I hope you mean the pic below.
Just started with doing some tutorials from
https://www.youtube.com/user/kehoste/videos
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J944HOj_4b0

For the calculation of the house I used a 60x20x0,5 m "wind-tunnel".
Fluid is water with 0,001 m^2/s viscosity / 1000 kg/m^3 density, inlet speed is 2,45 m/s.
This gives the same pressure like air at 250 km/h with 1,25 kg/m^3 density.
If you use the real windspeed you need a much finer mesh and excessive calculation time. Too hard stuff for
my steam-driven laptop. I have done the same with a wind-tunnel of 6x2x0,1 m simulating the
aerodynamic forces on a cylinder (D=400 mm). The viscosity is 0,001 m^2/s, density 1000 kg/m^3, inlet speed 1,5 m/s.
This gives the same pressure as air at 150 km/h. The theoretical correct result is 360 N/m drag-force
according to german DIN-manuals. I get the best results with GMSH (325 N/m), no refinement. cfmesh nearly
computes the double force. All simulations are "steady" (simpleFoam) without turbulence.
I am interested in calculating the aerodynamic forces on antenna-masts.
regards Thomas

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cylinder_cfmesh.JPG (80.47 KiB) Viewed 1341 times

[chrisb]

Your coloured picture of the house is really impressive, thank you!

[thschrader]

Your coloured picture of the house is really impressive, thank you!

Yes, the cfd-wb is really impressive. FC becomes a real engineering-tool.
I did a 3D-calculation of the house. The cool thing is, that
you can adress multiple processors via cfd-wb for using parallel computing.
Speeds up the calculation a lot.

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house1.JPG (18.37 KiB) Viewed 1230 times

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house3.JPG (59.97 KiB) Viewed 1230 times

[Worufu]

oooh good, I was trying the 3D version too of this model, but I get a lot of problem, pressure "explosion" at certain moment.
Do you use transient or steady? Does you pressure converge or remains at high value? (0.5-0.3)

[GeneFC]

I know very little about FEM and CFD, but I do know a thing or two about hurricanes.

In South Florida all houses must now be designed and constructed to withstand 250 km/h winds.

We had surprisingly little impact from Irma even though the eye was only 20 km from us. In 2004 our house was at the exact center of Charley. We saw 230 km/h winds with no structural damage at all.

It is more expensive to design and build for those winds, but it can be done.

Gene