A physical and numerical simulation strategy to understand the impact of the dynamics in air for the design of porous screens

This paper describes a virtual and physical design and prototyping strategy intended to aid designers to understand the relational dynamic between airflow and porous screens for building facades at the conceptual design stage. The strategy consists of three main components: 1) A prototyping phase involving a combination of computer aided modeling (CAM), physical additive and subtractive fabrication; 2) A virtual simulation phase using computational fluid dynamics (CFD) software; 3) A physical simulation phase of experimental fluid dynamics (EFD) using a miniature wind tunnel (MWT) and microelectronic measurement systems (MEMS) that measure: wind speed, air temperature and relative humidity. The design strategy supports the designer to make design decisions based on relevant feedback from both CFD and EFD methods - covering a vast design solution space. The tools utilized within this design strategy are presented as a kit containing parts that are relatively inexpensive, easy to assemble, and have been successfully user-tested at an international design workshop. The paper includes the description of the application of the strategy combining CFD, MWT, MEMs and real time visualization to the design and study of various porous screens produced during the design workshop.