Impact of Heat Transfer on Contaminant Dispersion in a Public Building

Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) models are effective at predicting dispersion of contaminants in or near a building. It is well known that thermal effects impact the flow around and within structures. This study assesses the importance of time of day, building materials, sky cover, etc. on the local thermal heating of a building. All these features affect the buoyancy, and thus, the resulting flow and dispersion about and inside a building. This study examines that impact through including full thermal coupling with flow calculations for an environmentally friendly building, including thermal radiation, conduction, and convection effects with a CFD model for both the interior and exterior of a building. The emphasis here is on simulating the impact of heating on contaminant dispersion.