Garcia, M., Boulanger, P., Duque, J., Giraldo, S. (2006) CFD Analysis of the Effect of Temperature and Buoyancy Due to Concrete Building Structures Based from an Integrated DEM and Landsat Infrared Images, Fifth International Conference on CFD in the Process Industries, CSIRO, Melbourne, Australia , 152-162.

The present paper deals with the influence of concrete structures on atmospheric temperature and the convection winds generated in the Aburra valley of Medellin, Colombia. This area is characterized by low wind velocities with a high industry density. A digital elevation model was used from the Radar Shuttle Topography Mission and post-processed in order to obtain a valid volumetric CFD domain. The construction process include holes filling due to imperfections in the original radar data, decimation of original cloud of points to reduce the excess of detail at regions with low curvature, and the introduction of a volume of air over the terrain surface (CFD domain). Landsat satellite data was used to set the terrain temperatures due to various material composition of the terrain. The converted infrared image was then registered into the CFD domain through an interpolation process. Navier-Stokes Equations were solved for buoyant, turbulent flow of compressible fluid accounting for convection and heat transfer effects. Simulation includes buoyancy and turbulence flow through the k-epsilon model using the high performance computing facilities of Westgrid (Western Canada Research Grid). Preliminary results shows wind distributions that compares to the one observed in low altitude in the region.

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