MicroFlo applications

[simoz]

Hi,
I work as a consultant engineer in the field of energy efficient building design. I am currently trying to figure out if it is possible to carry out the following CFD tasks using MicroFlo:

• Wind Site Analysis of an Urban Context (eg adjacent / nearby buildings and their effect on air flow on the building under consideration, how the shape and features of a building affect airflow into / around the building, etc.)
• Building Indoor Airflow both for Natural, Mechanical and Mixed Mode Ventilation (eg air movement across multiple zones, through atria and locally within a room, eg draughts) taking into account interactions with internal heat sources such as people and equipment.
• Analysis of ventilation components (eg windows, ventilation louvres) calculate the pressure drop / discharge coefficient (Cd) to verify the sketchy manufacturer data
• Large spaces (eg auditoria air movement from inlets under seats)
• Creating suitable meshes at appropriate length scales to get accurate results within a reasonable computing time

Can anyone help?

Many thanks

[harshadj]

• Wind Site Analysis of an Urban Context (eg adjacent / nearby buildings and their effect on air flow on the building under consideration, how the shape and features of a building affect airflow into / around the building, etc.)
-> MicroFlo can do flow around the building. It cannot do into the building along with with around.

• Building Indoor Airflow both for Natural, Mechanical and Mixed Mode Ventilation (eg air movement across multiple zones, through atria and locally within a room, eg draughts) taking into account interactions with internal heat sources such as people and equipment.
-> MicroFlo can definitely do this.
• Analysis of ventilation components (eg windows, ventilation louvres) calculate the pressure drop / discharge coefficient (Cd) to verify the sketchy manufacturer data
-> Limited capacity for this. I would prefer a more general purpose CFD package for such analysis.

• Large spaces (eg auditoria air movement from inlets under seats)
-> This can be done assuming the geometry is fairly simple.

• Creating suitable meshes at appropriate length scales to get accurate results within a reasonable computing time
-> MicroFlo creates orthogonal meshes which are aligned with the coordinate axes.

[PCully]

Hi,

That last point is a hard one for me to say yes or no to but as for all the others then I think MicroFlo within VE could easily meet your needs. MicroFlo integrates to other applications in VE so you would create the energy model geometry in ModelIT (or via imports form the likes of SketchUp or Revit if you wished) and then you can define the thermal properties of this model and run simulations using ApacheSim with options to link in enhanced natural ventilation, detailed HVAC etc. The simulation outputs can be imported to the CFD model as boundary conditions for internal analyses or you can define boundary conditions and components within MicroFlo for your model.

MicroFlo has options to run external or internal analyses as required.

Our website is linked below and will give some further details for you, you can also access the User Guide from the resource I have linked as a reference but really a trial version would probably be the best next step for you to see if for yourself.

http://www.iesve.com/software/ve-for-en ... croFlo/463

http://www.iesve.com/support/userguides

Phil

[simoz]

Many thanks to both for your replies.

I have one more question which is the maximum number of cells that can be generated with MicroFlo? Is it possible to adjust the grid depending on the region of the object that I am analysing?

Many thanks!

[harshadj]

The grid size varies based on the processor you have in your machine. Some processors are limited to 3-4 million cells (typically quad core) and 6-7 for dual cores. The limitation is mainly due to the amount of memory that can be accessed for simulation owing it its 32-bit nature.

Answer to second question is yes: you can locally refine the grid.

[simoz]

Many thanks for your help!