SimScale has released a new feature dedicated to pedestrian wind comfort calculations, ideal for wind engineers, urban planners, or designers involved with any facet of architectural building design. This new multi-directional wind analysis tool will greatly improve time to project completion by allowing up to 36 wind rose-driven directions to be simultaneously simulated, and automatically computes standard wind comfort criteria including Lawson, Davenport, and NEN8100.
New Feature Release: Pedestrian Wind Comfort Analysis Tool
Here at SimScale, we are constantly improving our product through feature releases and process improvements. As evaluating pedestrian wind comfort persists to be a cumbersome task, adding a wind analysis tool that works to simplify this method is a clear next step.
The setup to use this new tool takes around a minute, check this out:
How to Use SimScale’s New Analysis Tool
In order to utilize the new feature, users must have a Professional SimScale account. From there, the data required from the user is the 3D city/building model. Historical wind data and wind profiles can be automatically added via a global location or manually uploaded. Once we choose what height to calculate criteria at (from the ground or building) all wind directions are complete, the statistical data is analyzed, and wind comfort criteria are then computed automatically.
This paper addresses the topic of pedestrian wind comfort, from origin and
definition to wind comfort analysis, criteria, and example case studies; all meant to
form an in-depth understanding of the field.
One impressive part of this feature is that we can offset the results from a curved terrain—as many cities (like the one below) are not really flat. Check out the image below.
![pedestrian wind comfort analysis tool Lawson criteria](https://www.simscale.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/pedestrian-wind-comfort-analysis-tool-lawson-criteria.png)
We can also still jump into transient results for any of the wind directions and observe the flow behave like it would in the real world. This will be really helpful if there is a high-risk region and we wish to understand why.
Online Pedestrian Wind Comfort Simulation vs. Wind Tunnel Testing?
There are many benefits of using online simulation instead of prototype wind tunnel testing. For starters, our cloud-based simulation software allows for quick and cost-effective changes. If the outcome of an analysis simulation is not as expected, designs can be easily and efficiently adjusted and re-simulated to get to the desired outcome. With our new analysis tool, this process becomes even faster as users can quickly make calculations, aggregate data, and evaluate the yearly average wind comfort at any location in the world.
Learn More About the Benefits of Our New Feature:
On October 23, SimScale will host a free webinar followed by a Q&A session to demonstrate the new tool to new and existing users.
More About Pedestrian Wind Comfort from SimScale:
To learn more about how you can evaluate pedestrian wind comfort for your designs using online CFD from SimScale, check out these resources:
- How to Assess Pedestrian Wind Comfort in 2019
- Boston Waterfront Weather & Pedestrian Wind Comfort
- From Revit® to Simulation: Wind Urban Microclimate Analysis with SimScale
- Wind Experiment: Project Spotlight
- Assessing Wind Comfort In Urban Areas with CFD