CFD Analysis of the Effect on Buoyancy Due to Terrain Temperature Based on an Integrated DEM and Landsat InfraredImagery

• Autores: Manuel García, Pierre Boulanger, Juan Duque, Santiago Giraldo
• Localización: Ingeniería y ciencia, ISSN-e 1794-9165, Vol. 4, Nº. 8, 2008, págs. 65-84
• Idioma: inglés
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• Resumen

  • This paper deals with the influence of concrete structures on atmospheric temperature and the convection winds generated in the Aburra Valley in Medellín, Colombia. This area is characterised by low wind velocities with a high industry density. A digital elevation model was used from the Radar Shuttle Topography Mission and post-processed in order to obtain a valid volumetric CFD domain. The construction process includes hole-filling due to imperfections in the original radar data, decimation of the original cloud-of-points to reduce the excess of detail in regions with low curvature, and the introduction of a volume of air over the terrain surface (CFD domain). Landsat satellite data was used to set the terrain temperatures for various material compositions. The converted infrared image was then registered into the CFD domain using an interpolation technique.

    Navier�Stokes Equations were solved for buoyant, turbulent flow of compressible fluids accounting for convection and heat transfer effects. Simulation includes buoyancy and turbulence flow through the k�epsilon model using the high-performance computing facilities of Westgrid (Western Canada Research Grid). Preliminary results show wind distributions that compare to the one observed at low�altitude in the region.