Integration of Computational Fluids Dynamics and Virtual Reality Visualization for Constructing the Wind Field

Author(s):  
Lu Lu ◽  
Xiuling Wang

3-D wind field models were developed for constructing 3-D wind fields in an urban wind condition and over irregular terrain. The virtual environment is used to visualize the simulation results. Simulation results based on statistical input data were obtained for 3-D urban wind flow over the Classroom and Office (CLO) building at Purdue University Calumet (PUC). The objective for this project was to construct the 3D wind field around the roof of the CLO building in order to analyze the wind condition and identify a suitable installation area which would have relatively more wind power but less turbulence for the wind turbine. By using the virtual reality (VR) technique, the simulation results can be clearly and vividly shown in a virtual environment that would not be as limited as traditional two-dimensional views. Statistical analysis was based on the wind data that was recorded by a sensor located on the roof of the CLO building. Specific wind conditions, which were obtained from the statistical analysis, were applied to simulation cases for the wind flow around a 3-D geometry model of the CLO building. In addition, different wind directions were applied in the Fluent program. After the CFD simulation results were exported, the virtual reality technique was used to visualize the simulation results, which can be observed intuitively. Visualization of simulation results are easier to be observed and be analyzed.

Fluids ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 5 (3) ◽  
pp. 137 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mingrui Liu ◽  
Xiuling Wang

Three-dimensional urban wind field construction plays an important role not only in the analysis of pedestrian levels of comfort but also in the effectiveness of harnessing wind energy in an urban environment. However, it is challenging to accurately simulate urban wind flow due to the complex land use in urban environments. In this study, a three-dimensional numerical model was developed for urban wind flow construction. To obtain an accurate urban wind field, various turbulence models, including the Reynolds stress model (RSM), k-ω shear stress transport (SST), realizable k-ε, and (Re-Normalisation Group (RNG) k-ε models were tested. Simulation results were compared with experimental data in the literature. The RSM model showed promising potential in simulating urban wind flow. The model was then adopted to simulate urban wind flow for Purdue University Northwest, which is located in the Northwest Indiana urban region. Based on the simulation results, the optimal location was identified for urban wind turbine siting.


2017 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 854-859
Author(s):  
M. Saiful Azimi ◽  
Z. A. Shukri ◽  
M. Zaharuddin

The difficulties of transporting heavy mobile robots limit robotic experiments in agriculture. Virtual reality however, offers an alternative to conduct experiments in agriculture. This paper presents an application of virtual reality in a robot navigational experiment using SolidWorks and simulated into MATLAB. Trajectories were initiated using Probabilistic Roadmap and compared based on travel time, distance and tracking error, and the efficiency was calculated. The simulation results showed that the proposed method was able to conduct the navigational experiment inside the virtual environment. U-turn trajectory was chosen as the best trajectory for crop inspection with 82.7% efficiency.


1999 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. 255 ◽  
Author(s):  
José A. Gómez-Tejedor ◽  
María J. Estrela ◽  
Millán M. Millán

In this work, a mesoscale model has been used to simulate the wind flow in a real fire situation in the Spanish Mediterranean basin in July 1991. The model simulation results for the wind field are shown, and compared to the fire evolution, and to some real observations taken in the area during the fire event. The most important conclusion is that, in spite of the presence of the fire, the mesoscale model was still able to predict the local winds accurately without taking the fire heating processes into account.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Huiwen Zhang ◽  
Zhen Wu ◽  
Jing Hu ◽  
Zhiping Zhang ◽  
Bin Xiao ◽  
...  

AbstractSand flux is the key factor to determine the migration of sand dunes and the erosion to the surrounding environment. There are crescent-shaped sand dunes of various scales in the desert, and there are significant differences in spatial wind field and sand flux among them. However, due to the difficulty of monitoring, it is difficult to continuously observe the spatial wind field and sand flux around the larger crescentic dunes. On the basis of the Reynolds-Average Navier–Stokes (RA-NS) equation and the stress and sand flux model, the distribution of wind field and sand flux of a circular dune with a height of 4.2 m and a length of about 100 m during the four evolutionary periods of the evolution into a crescentic dune was simulated in this study. By comparing with the measured results, we verified that the closer to the leeward side, the more the simulated values of the velocity in wind field and sand flux were in line with the measured results. In order to further analyze the influence of the height of dune and other relevant parameters on sand flux, we simulated the influence on wind field and sand flux by changing the air viscosity and wind velocity of upper boundary. We found that the air viscosity mainly affected the amount of deposited sand on the leeward side of sand dune, while the increase of wind velocity would undoubtedly increase the sand flux of the whole sand dune. In addition, the simulation results also showed that the influence of changes in height of dune on the turbulent intensity of leeward side was very significant, and the turbulent intensity increased with the height of dune. The height changes of tall dunes gradually affected the transport of sand caused by wind flow behind the leeward side because that the rotation of the wind flow would form new vortexes at the large pores behind the leeward side, which would increase the turbulent energy in space and thus would increase the distance of migration of the lifting sand. While the low sand dunes could not form extra small vortexes at the bottom of the leeward side, so the wind velocity was small and the eddy currents behind the leeward side were more stable. The simulation results indicated that wind velocity was not the only reason for increasing the amount of sand flux, and the fluctuation of wind flow caused by turbulence could also stimulate the movement of sand particles on the ground.


2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (4) ◽  
pp. 15
Author(s):  
Jingyi Li ◽  
Ceenu George ◽  
Andrea Ngao ◽  
Kai Holländer ◽  
Stefan Mayer ◽  
...  

Ubiquitous technology lets us work in flexible and decentralised ways. Passengers can already use travel time to be productive, and we envision even better performance and experience in vehicles with emerging technologies, such as virtual reality (VR) headsets. However, the confined physical space constrains interactions while the virtual space may be conceptually borderless. We therefore conducted a VR study (N = 33) to examine the influence of physical restraints and virtual working environments on performance, presence, and the feeling of safety. Our findings show that virtual borders make passengers touch the car interior less, while performance and presence are comparable across conditions. Although passengers prefer a secluded and unlimited virtual environment (nature), they are more productive in a shared and limited one (office). We further discuss choices for virtual borders and environments, social experience, and safety responsiveness. Our work highlights opportunities and challenges for future research and design of rear-seat VR interaction.


Sensors ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (2) ◽  
pp. 397
Author(s):  
Qimeng Zhang ◽  
Ji-Su Ban ◽  
Mingyu Kim ◽  
Hae Won Byun ◽  
Chang-Hun Kim

We propose a low-asymmetry interface to improve the presence of non-head-mounted-display (non-HMD) users in shared virtual reality (VR) experiences with HMD users. The low-asymmetry interface ensures that the HMD and non-HMD users’ perception of the VR environment is almost similar. That is, the point-of-view asymmetry and behavior asymmetry between HMD and non-HMD users are reduced. Our system comprises a portable mobile device as a visual display to provide a changing PoV for the non-HMD user and a walking simulator as an in-place walking detection sensor to enable the same level of realistic and unrestricted physical-walking-based locomotion for all users. Because this allows non-HMD users to experience the same level of visualization and free movement as HMD users, both of them can engage as the main actors in movement scenarios. Our user study revealed that the low-asymmetry interface enables non-HMD users to feel a presence similar to that of the HMD users when performing equivalent locomotion tasks in a virtual environment. Furthermore, our system can enable one HMD user and multiple non-HMD users to participate together in a virtual world; moreover, our experiments show that the non-HMD user satisfaction increases with the number of non-HMD participants owing to increased presence and enjoyment.


2011 ◽  
Vol 339 ◽  
pp. 148-151 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shu Juan Zheng ◽  
Long Quan

This paper optimizes the structure of the poppet valve based on the internal flow. The flow-force on poppet valve in the case of the converging flow is simulated and studied by CFD. Simulation results represent that the traditional formula for computing the flow-force can be used only in the certain range, so the formula is modified based on the simulation result.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document