Knowledge about the pattern of air flow and the distribution of temperature, pressure or pollutants is often needed in buildings in order to investigate and improve the efficiency of a ventilation system, verify comfort conditions or predict thermal transport.

The application of CFD models is extensively replacing traditional costly and lengthy methods, such as the wind tunnel scale or full size model testing or the laboratory testing in the design and evaluation of building projects. The building industry has utilised the developments in dynamic modelling, CFD codes are being used to predict the performance of HVAC, passive systems, wind engineering etc.

Although a number of different factors such as construction, spatial and safety standards, economy and of course aesthetics affect the design of a building, environmental issues like efficiency, pollution, environmental friendliness and, subsequently, energy consumption should also be taken into account. CFD modelling gives a reasonably fast and accurate tool to predict the influence a particular design will have on the performance of the building.

Using CFD models ICON can help you simulate and predict:

• Airflow inside and around buildings
• Air change efficiency
• Humidity in buildings
• Pollutant concentration and removal
• Air velocity distribution
• Temperature distribution
• Age of air in rooms
• Fire hazards and smoke migration
• Natural ventilation, stack ventilation and passive systems
• Solar radiation
• Tunnel and subway station modelling (moving train meshing included)

Also with the development and application of additional user coding we can predict the distribution of scalars representing absolute moisture content and relative humidity, as well as indices such as the Predicted Mean Vote (PMV) and Predicted Percentage of Dissatisfied (PPD), which are used to determine occupant thermal comfort and indoor air quality.