The way air flows around a building – whether it is high rise or low rise – has many implications for a design team. It can create uncomfortable or even dangerous wind speeds at street level, affect a building’s structural loading and distribute pollution from chimney stacks. Airflow can also influence the placement of smoke and ventilation vents that control the internal environment.

Buro Happold, through its CoSA Solutions group, is a leading authority in the field of computational wind engineering (CWE). We use 3D computer simulations to plot the effects of wind loading on the external structure, as well as showing the interaction between air flow in and around the building. These studies enable us to advise architects and designers on how best to optimise the performance of a building.

Analysis of external wind effects is usually carried out at an early stage in the design process: either as part of a planning application, an environmental impact assessment, a conceptual design of a natural ventilation strategy, or a study on the effects of pollution dispersion. By exposing any potential problems in the design, CWE assessments allow corrective action to be taken early on in the process – for example, the choice of structural materials may need to be re-considered to improve strength and stiffness.
 
Computational studies can be carried out much more quickly and cheaply than conventional wind tunnel testing, and avoid many of the scaling and measurement errors associated with physical testing, especially with complex geometries such as tensile and lightweight fabric structures. As well as office and residential buildings, CWE is used to predict the effect of wind velocities on more ‘open’ buildings like stadia and grandstands.