Indoor Air 2011; 21: 442–453  2011 John Wiley & Sons A/S

wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/ina
Printed in Singapore. All rights reserved INDOOR AIR
doi:10.1111/j.1600-0668.2011.00723.x

Commemorating 20 years of Indoor Air

CFD and ventilation research

Abstract There has been a rapid growth of scientific literature on the application Y. Li1, P. V. Nielsen2
of computational fluid dynamics (CFD) in the research of ventilation and
1
indoor air science. With a 1000–10,000 times increase in computer hardware Department of Mechanical Engineering, The University
capability in the past 20 years, CFD has become an integral part of scientific of Hong Kong, Pokfulam Road, Hong Kong SAR, China,
2
Department of Civil Engineering, Aalborg University,
research and engineering development of complex air distribution and ventila-
Aalborg, Denmark
tion systems in buildings. This review discusses the major and specific challenges
of CFD in terms of turbulence modelling, numerical approximation, and
boundary conditions relevant to building ventilation. We emphasize the growing Key words: Computational fluid dynamics; Building
ventilation; Experiment; Theory; Analysis; Validation.
need for CFD verification and validation, suggest ongoing needs for analytical
and experimental methods to support the numerical solutions, and discuss the Y. Li
growing capacity of CFD in opening up new research areas. We suggest that Department of Mechanical Engineering
The University of Hong Kong
CFD has not become a replacement for experiment and theoretical analysis in Pokfulam Road, Hong Kong SAR
ventilation research, rather it has become an increasingly important partner. China
Tel.: +852 28592625
Fax: +852 2858 5415
e-mail: liyg@hku.hk

Received for review 29 October 2010. Accepted for

publication 5 May 2011.

Practical Implications
We believe that an effective scientific approach for ventilation studies is still to combine experiments, theory, and
CFD. We argue that CFD verification and validation are becoming more crucial than ever as more complex venti-
lation problems are solved. It is anticipated that ventilation problems at the city scale will be tackled by CFD in the
next 10 years.

equations, known as the Navier–Stokes equations.

Introduction
Building ventilation, together with source control and
air cleaning, controls indoor air quality. Mechanical
fans and/or natural forces drive ventilation. A major
design objective is to ensure that ventilation air is
delivered from a limited number of supply openings to
every (occupied) part of the room in an effective and
efficient manner. This has become a challenging engi-
neering task as buildings become larger, higher, and
deeper, and the penetration depth of a ventilation
supply air jet is limited. Air distribution is affected by
supply air jets, supply and exhaust location, thermally
induced airflows, as well as room geometry and
obstacles.
Air distribution is all about airflow and transport of
heat and airborne pollutants. Air distribution is
governed by the conservation principle. It is mathe-
matically described by a set of partial differential
These can be solved analytically only for simple and
ideal conditions. For complex geometry and/or com-
plex boundary conditions, numerical methods may be
used to solve these equations or solve their modeling
versions, given the initial and boundary conditions, i.e.
computational fluid dynamics (CFD). There have been
at least three distinctive or overlapping stages in the
solutions of the governing equations, similar to other
fields involving fluid mechanics and heat transfer.
• The stage of analytical closed-form or approximate
solutions. Examples include Koestel (1955), Raja-
ratnam (1976), etc.
• The stage of empirical relationships obtained from
measurements in small- and full-scale tests. Exam-
ples include Straub et al. (1956) and Müllejans
(1966). Both examples were fully cited in ASHRAE
(2009) and Awbi (2003), respectively.

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 CFD and ventilation research

• The stage of numerical solutions. exception), the so-called Boussinesq approximation is

commonly used (Tritton, 1988).
During the 1950s to the 1970s, the aerospace
In CFD, ventilation parameters such as room/
industry and weather/climate prediction were the
building geometry, supply and exhaust openings, and
primary drivers in early CFD development, but an
physical variables can be flexibly changed. CFD would
engineering application such as building ventilation has
allow scientists to test scenarios that were not possible
been a main driver in recent CFD development over
using experimental methods, and have more in-depth
the last 30 years. Nielsen (1973) was probably the first
and in-breadth examination of the physical phenome-
to apply CFD in ventilation studies. Since 1970s, there
non, because of relatively low cost and efficiency. CFD
have been considerable developments in both CFD
software is now widely available, and complex venti-
(faster computers, faster numerical methods, and
lation problems seem to be easily simulated on a PC in
improved turbulence modeling) and ventilation (venti-
a researcherÕs office.
lation methods and ventilation control). Indeed, CFD
Adapted from Fujii (2005), Table 1 shows a com-
has now been used in nearly all disciplines where
parison of experimental methods and CFD. Both
insights into fluid phenomena are needed. CFD sim-
methods suffer from possible inherent errors. The
ulations with 5 billion cells were carried out for urban
major accuracy issue in experimental methods is the
heat island analysis in Tokyo for a 33 km · 33 km area
scaling effect, in particular when small-scale models are
(Ashie and Kono, 2011).
used. CFD suffers from both turbulence modeling
There are a number of reviews on CFD and
errors and numerical errors.
ventilation, such as Awbi (1989), Jones and Whittle
CFD has two major challenges. The same applies to
(1992), Chow (1996), Nielsen (2004), Zhai (2006) and
its application in ventilation research. The first is that
Chen (2009). Textbooks on CFD include Ferziger and
turbulence is still only ÔmodelingÕ in CFD.
Peric (1999), Wesseling (2000) and Nielsen et al.
We illustrate this challenge using two examples.
(2007), on CFD verification and validation: Roache
First, the flow in a ventilated room is generally
(1998), on turbulence modeling: Wilcox (2006) and
assumed to be a fully developed turbulent flow, and
Sagaut (2001), on building ventilation: Croome
this flow can be handled by most turbulence models.
and Roberts (1981), Etheridge and Sandberg (1996)
But in some areas of the room, including the occupied
and Awbi (2003).
zone, a low Reynolds number flow can exist at low
This review intends to have a different focus from
room air supply velocity. Figure 1 shows measure-
the existing reviews. We discuss the growing CFD
ments of the maximum velocity in the occupied zone of
capability and challenges for ventilation studies, and
a room with mixing ventilation from a wall-mounted
suggest continued needs for analytical and experimen-
diffuser versus the air change rate. The flow is
tal methods to support the numerical solutions.
isothermal (Nielsen, 1992a). It is known from the
Examples of the contribution of CFD in revealing
similarity principles that any velocity as, for example,
new ventilation phenomena as well as its use beyond
the maximum velocity in the occupied zone is a linear
building application are also discussed. We do not
function of the air change rate (or the supply velocity)
intend to review the application of CFD in practical
when the flow is a fully developed isothermal turbulent
design of building ventilation, simply as the scientific
flow. In Figure 1, this is the case for velocities larger
literature does not really reflect the whole picture of
than 0.25 m/s, but the figure indicates that the flow in
the field, and isolated comments will be made in the
text when necessary. We also do not cover the
important topic of comparison of different turbulence
models, as it was reviewed, for example, by Chen Table 1 Comparison of laboratory experiments and computational fluid dynamics (CFD)
for building ventilation (adapted from Fujii, 2005)
(2009).
Small-scale or full-scale experiments CFD

Two major challenges in CFD Water tanks, Computers

small-scale models,
CFD solves the governing equations of fluid flow on a or full-scale rooms
computer and provides both spatial and temporal field Measurement methods Numerical algorithms
solutions of variables such as temperature and velocity, Manufacturing techniques Programming techniques
and/or predicts the dispersion of pollutants in a room (parallel language, etc.)
Model manufacturing CAD interface, grid generation
or a building, i.e. the computational domain. CFD can Data acquisition Postprocessing
also be used to predict indoor air quality, thermal Data handling Visualization
comfort, fire and smoke spread, and wind flow around Scaling effects Discretization error, turbulence
buildings. The effect of gravitational body force can be (Reynolds number and modeling error (e.g. because of
Archimedes number) low Reynolds number in
significant in airflows in buildings. Owing to relatively
the predictions)
small temperature differences (with smoke flow as an

443
Li & Nielsen
Fig. 1 The measured maximum velocity (urm, m/s) in the occu-
pied zone of a room versus air change rate (indicating supply
velocity) (n, h)1) in the case of isothermal mixing ventilation.
Proportionality between supply velocity and maximum velocity
in the room indicates a fully developed turbulent flow in the
occupied zone for a supply velocity larger than 0.25 m/s and a
low Reynolds number flow for lower velocities
the occupied zone is a low Reynolds number flow for
velocities below 0.25 m/s (dotted line). The conven-
tional turbulence models may not accurately capture
such important physical phenomena.
Second, the importance of correct turbulence mod-
eling may be seen from predicting a wall jet spread in a
room from a single nozzle in the end wall close to the
ceiling (see Schälin and Nielsen, 2004). The predicted
flow fields are shown in Figure 2, with both the k-
model with the assumption of isotropic turbulence and
the Reynolds stress model (RSM) considering the
anisotropic turbulence.
The wall jet is wrongly predicted by the k- model, as
the wall jet grows at an equal rate parallel to the ceiling
and down into the room. It is known that a three-
dimensional wall jet grows much faster parallel to the
ceiling than down into the room. In the RSM, with
wall reflection terms, a redistribution of normal stresses
takes place near the wall. These dampen the turbulent
fluctuations perpendicular to the wall and convert the
energy to fluctuations parallel to the wall. The RSM
thus gives a better prediction than the k- model as
(a1)
(b1)
Fig. 2 Differences in predicted wall jet spread in a 3D room by the k- model (a1, b1) and the Reynolds stress model (a2, b2), as seen by
the size of the white area where the speed is >3.5 m/s in (a1) and (a2) for the profile near the ceiling, and >3.0 m/s in (b1) and (b2) for
the profile in the mid-vertical plane. The wall jet was issued from the left at the ceiling level (see Schälin and Nielsen, 2004)
444
compared to the experiments (Schälin and Nielsen,
2004).
The error as a result of the anisotropic issue may
become relatively insignificant (and therefore never
realized) if the room is short and the supply opening
has a large width compared with height (a typical
supply opening). This error is also small if the flow in
the room is nearly two dimensional, for example, if the
supply opening is 20% of the room width or greater,
i.e. when a two-dimensional wall jet in the initial flow
results (data not shown).
Different turbulence models for building airflows
were evaluated, including Reynolds-averaged modeling
(Chen, 1996; Murakami, 1998; Abdilghanie et al.,
2009) and large eddy simulations (Mochida et al.,
2005; Béghein et al., 2005). Owing to turbulence
modeling difficulties, CFD may not be able to reveal
the real physics as in experiments. An increasing
number of large eddy simulations are carried out for
indoor airflow analysis, which allows the capture of
some flow physics (Berrouk et al., 2010; Choi and
Edwards, 2008).
The second major challenge in CFD is that the
solutions are still approximate, not exact. Various
numerical phenomena occur, including numerical dif-
fusion and numerical dispersion (Li, 1997), as demon-
strated in Figure 3 by the predicted results of a scalar
cone 10 units high after one full counterclockwise
rotation. The maximum Courant number (velocity
times the time step, divided by the grid size) used is
0.09. The grid is 64 · 64. The numerical diffusion is
shown by the reduction in the cone height from
10 units to 8.243 for the QUICK scheme and 5.251
for the second-order upwind scheme (SOU). The
numerical dispersion is shown by the oscillations
behind the cone for QUICK and in front of the cone
for SOU (Li, 1997). Thus, the two commonly used
convection schemes in ventilation studies are shown to
give significant errors for a very simple problem.
Questions can be asked whether the same numerical
diffusion and dispersion exist in the CFD simulations
for complex ventilation problems, and the answer is
(a2)
(b2)

Fig. 3 Perspective plots of the predicted profiles of a scalar conic shape of 10 units high after one full counterclockwise rotation (Li,
1997)
most likely positive. In theory, the numerical errors
reduce to an acceptable accuracy when the number of
grid points is sufficient or the mesh size is sufficiently
small. The effect of numerical diffusion in recirculating
flow is also demonstrated in a ÔSmith and Hutton
schemeÕ by Sørensen and Nielsen (2003b). Numerical
accuracy is expected to improve as computer capacity
further increases and better numerical schemes are
developed.
Owing to turbulence modeling errors and numerical
errors, CFD is not only a replacement for the theory
and experimental methods in ventilation analysis but
is also a partner. Obviously, an effective scientific
approach is to combine theory, experiments, and CFD
in a way that exploits the inherent strengths of each
method. This statement may not be true for engi-
neering design of complex realistic problems, in
which data from both theory and experiments are
generally not available, and the required engineering
accuracy for noncritical applications is often not very
high.
Modeling building ventilation – specific challenges
Croome and Roberts (1981) asked two questions: (i)
What kind of airflow pattern should be in a space
occupied? (ii) How and when can the indoor airflow be
predicted? CFD was mostly used to answer the second
question, but it has also increasingly been used to
answer the first question.
The primary process simulated in CFD ventilation
models is the airflow. The primary variables include air
speed, its direction, air temperature, and turbulence
quantities. The buoyancy force can be significant in
building airflows. An important process that affects the
airflow in buildings is the transport of heat and
moisture, including thermal radiation (Li et al.,
1993). The related surface condensation is also impor-
tant for dampness and mold issues in indoor air. An
understanding of the detailed heat transfer through the
building envelope using combined CFD and heat
CFD and ventilation research
transfer analysis is also useful for building energy
efficiency.
For indoor air quality analysis, detailed emission
characteristics at the material surface (Murakami
et al., 2003; Yang et al., 2004; Mo et al., 2005), and
breathing and coughing may be included. For partic-
ulate matter, important processes include particle
deposition and resuspension. An important process
that affects gaseous pollutants and aerosols is indoor
air chemistry.
Two overall ventilation performance indexes are
often used. The air exchange efficiency indicates how
efficiently the outdoor air is distributed in the room,
while the ventilation effectiveness indicates how effi-
ciently the airborne pollutant is removed from the
room. The local mean age of air at a point is defined as
the average time that the air takes to arrive at that
point as it first enters the room, and the room mean age
of air is the average of the age of air at all points in the
room. The age of air can be measured using tracer gas
techniques. The air exchange efficiency and ventilation
effectiveness have been studied using CFD (Peng et al.,
1997).
We next discuss two specific challenges. The first is in
the description of the supply openings. The specific
challenge in representing supply openings is part of
more general challenges in properly specifying bound-
ary conditions. One major challenge for characterizing
airflow in buildings is the central importance of
complex boundary conditions indoors. We now under-
stand rather well how to model thermal and flow
boundary conditions at walls, supply openings, and
natural ventilation openings (Li and Holmberg, 1994;
Fontaine et al., 2005). Efforts made to integrate CFD
with building thermal modeling and multizone airflow
modeling (Axley, 2007) have been reviewed by Chen
(2009).
The flow from a diffuser in a ventilation system is
determined by very small details in the diffuser design.
A numerical prediction method should be able to
handle small details in dimensions of one tenth of a
445
Li & Nielsen
millimeter, as well as dimensions of several meters in
the room. Such a wide range of the geometry neces-
sitates incorporating a large number of cells in the
numerical scheme, which increases the prediction cost
and computing time to a high level.
Various simplifications can be suggested. The most
obvious simplified method is to replace the actual
diffuser with one of less complicated geometry that
supplies the same momentum of airflow to the room.
This may be obtained from a single opening with an
area equivalent to the effective supply area of the
diffuser, and such methods were evaluated by Nielsen
(2004).
The box method is a method based on specifying the
wall jet flow (or free jet flow) or measured data close to
the diffuser (Nielsen, 1973, 1974). The details of the
flow in the immediate vicinity of the supply opening are
ignored, and the supply jet is described by values along
the surfaces on an imaginary box in front of the
diffuser. Two advantages are obtained by using such
boundary conditions. First, it is not required to use a
grid as fine as that needed for full numerical prediction
of the wall jet development close to the opening.
Second, it is possible to make two-dimensional predic-
tions for supply openings that are three-dimensional,
provided that the jets develop into a two-dimensional
wall jet or free jet at a given distance from the opening.
The box method is a possibility because the flow
close to the openings can be considered to be a
parabolic flow in contrast to the general flow in the
room which often will be an elliptic flow. It is therefore
also a possibility to use the full capacity of the
computer to generate the flow around the diffuser
and after that, using the capacity to predict the flow in
the room, with the predicted values from the first run
as boundary conditions in the second set of predictions
(Kondo and Nagasawa, 2002).
The prescribed velocity method has also been success-
fully developed. The inlet profiles are given as bound-
ary conditions at the diffuser in the usual way (as
simplified boundary conditions), and they can be
represented by a few grid points only. The velocity
(a) (b)
Fig. 4 (a) Air supply diffuser with unsymmetrical adjusted nozzles. (b) Representation of the air supply diffuser using embedded grid
refinement and (c) using unstructured grid
446
profiles are given in the inlet volume (box) in front of
the diffuser, and all the other variables are calculated in
this volume as well as in the rest of the room. The
velocities are thus prescribed for the box in front of the
diffuser as the analytical values obtained for a wall jet
from the diffuser, or they are given as measured values
(Gosman et al., 1980; and Nielsen, 1992a,b).
The momentum method is a method where the
momentum and mass flow are decoupled in the CFD
simulation of the diffuser, and the initial momentum
and mass flow rate from the diffuser are used as the
boundary conditions. Chen and Srebric (2001) give a
detailed discussion of the momentum method.
Continuous development of computational capacity
and speed has undoubtedly made the direct methods
with local grid refinements or multigrid solution, a
natural possibility. The diffuser in Figure 4 consists,
for example, of 12 small slots which can be adjusted to
different flow directions. The diffuser is mounted in a
wall below the ceiling. It is a complicated geometry
generating an asymmetrical three-dimensional flow in
the room, and it can only be introduced in the CFD
predictions by making a detailed description of the
boundary conditions corresponding to a partly or fully
resolved diffuser.
Comparisons between measurements and predictions
with the grids in Figure 4b,c show that predictions
based on 250,000 cells are sufficient to obtain a grid-
independent solution (Szczena et al., 2005). Other
diffuser designs can be much more demanding to the
computer capacity.
It may be noted that it is always possible to treat a
complicated supply opening such as that shown in
Figure 4 as porous medium. We specify the so-called
intrinsic average velocity and the free opening ratio.
The mass and momentum conservation are automat-
ically satisfied. In addition, all scalars such as turbulent
kinetic energy are automatically conserved. This total
conservation method has not been widely tested. Such
treatment is similar to the porous model used in tree
canopy layer analysis and recently in the urban
ventilation analysis (Hang and Li, 2010).
(c)
 CFD and ventilation research

The second specific challenge is in the treatment of extended beyond the building scale up to city scale
multiple length scales existing in the ventilation prob- (Hang et al., 2009a,b; Yang and Li, 2009). Difficulties
lem. Table 2 summarizes a variety of spatial scales of arise when multiple scales need to be resolved. To some
building ventilation problems that have been simu- degree, the difficulties in treating supply opening is also
lated. It covers a range of 0.001–100 m in building one such multiscale problem.
ventilation and up to10,000 m including city ventila-
tion. For example, CFD has been used to understand
CFD opens new research areas
how the supply air jets are generated and how they
develop (e.g. Karimipanah and Awbi, 2002), as well as CFD has made it possible for a number of new
how human body plumes evolve (e.g. Gao and Niu, research directions to be further explored. Examples
2006; Craven and Settles, 2006). It is important to include solution multiplicity in building ventilation,
realize that parabolic flows as jets and plumes depend inverse CFD modeling, near-body micro-environment,
on a detailed description of the source of the flow and disease transmission, which the authors are famil-
(momentum source scale in Table 2). The ability to iar with.
study detailed airflows and heat transfer around a
human body allows the detailed examination of ther-
Solution multiplicity
mal comfort of the human body in a room (Gao and
Niu, 2005). Most studies have been at the room scale, Solution multiplicity refers to the existence of more
and most of these considered an empty room. Different than one solution of the overall flow patterns in a
air distribution strategies are evaluated and compared room under the same boundary conditions. Different
(e.g. Lin et al., 2005). Airflows between rooms can be initial conditions can lead to different solutions. In
important for overall airflow pattern design, such as in some situations, a solution can be switched to another
hospitals. CFD has also been useful in analyzing the when there is a sufficient perturbation. Müllejans
effectiveness of open windows, wind catchers, and (1966) first experimentally identified the existence of
chimneys in natural ventilation. CFD has been used two solutions in a room with mixed convection. The
either alone or in combination with the multizone same problem was analyzed using CFD by Nielsen
airflow models for the building scale study (Tan and et al. (1979), which is shown in Figure 5. However,
Glicksman, 2005). Another commonly studied situa- solution multiplicity problems seemed to be forgotten
tion is the combined analysis of airflow around and in the ventilation community until the phenomenon of
within a building, in particular for natural ventilation multiple solutions was found again in natural ventila-
analysis. In the latter situation, the wind flows within a tion through analytical solutions by Nitta (1996), Li
building cluster can affect the building ventilation. The and Delsante (1998, 2001) and Hunt and Linden
neighborhood scale also includes the ventilation of (2005), and for mixing ventilation by Bjerg et al.
streets. The ventilation problem can be further (2002). Although the existence of multiple solutions
was not identified by CFD, CFD has provided a
powerful tool to understand solution multiplicity
Table 2 Variable scales of building ventilation problems phenomena in buildings, in addition to experimental
studies (Heiselberg et al., 2004; Li et al., 2006; Yang
Problems Geometric Scale Study examples
et al., 2006).
Momentum 0.001–0.1 m Nielsen (1992a,b),
source scale Supply diffusers Chen and Srebric (2001),
Nielsen et al. (2007),
Inverse CFD modeling
Kondo and Nagasawa (2002)
Identification of the airborne pollutant source loca-
Flow element 0.1–2 m Murakami et al. (2000),
scale Coughs and Bjørn and Nielsen (2002), tion(s) and strength can be important in identification
exhalation puffs Murakami (2004), of the index patient in an airborne disease outbreak
Body plumes Zhu et al. (2006), and quick determination of the source origin(s) during
Russo et al. (2009) intentional release of chemical or biological pollutants
Room scale 2–20 m Gan (1995), Brohus et al. (2006),
Personalized ventilation Tian et al. (2008),
in a building. Examples include Zhang and Chen
Displacement ventilation, Russo et al. (2009) (2007) and Liu and Zhai (2008).
Mixing ventilation,
Stratum ventilation
Building 20–200 m Lu et al. (1996), Kato et al. Near-body micro-environment
scale Multiple rooms (1995, 1997),
Large enclosures Ji and Cook (2007) Both thermal comfort and exposure of respiratory
District 200–2000 m Kato and Huang (2009), droplets require a full understanding of the near-body
scale Multiple buildings Mirzaei and Haghighat (2010) micro-environment. CFD has made it possible to
City scale 2–20 km Hang and Li (2010)
calculate the detailed airflow pattern around a human
City ventilation
body (Gao and Niu, 2005, 2006; Russo and Khalifa,

447
Li & Nielsen

(a)

(b)

Fig. 5 Existence of two solutions (a) and (b) in a room with a heated floor and full width slot, as shown by experimental studies (left
from Müllejans, 1966) and computational fluid dynamics (CFD) (right from Nielsen et al., 1979), though the experiments and the CFD
predictions do not cover the same geometrical situation

2010), including near-body chemistry. The movement

of people can also be studied (Choi and Edwards,
2008).

Disease transmission
The importance of building ventilation and airflow in
disease transmission and control has been known for a
long time, but it was during and after the 2003 SARS
epidemics that CFD became a modeling tool for
disease transmission in buildings. CFD has to some
degree reproduced the possible transmission routes in
the Amoy Gardens outbreak (Yu et al., 2004), the
PWH 8A Ward outbreak (Li et al., 2005) and in other
outbreaks (e.g. Niu and Tung, 2008). Since 2003, there
have been a great number of studies using CFD to
improve hospital ward ventilation (Chao and Wan,
2006; Noakes et al., 2006; Qian et al., 2006; Lai and
Cheng, 2007 and Bolashikov and Melikov, 2009). An
example of predicted exhaled particle dispersion in a
multibed ward is shown in Figure 6.
CFD verification and validation
The challenges on turbulence modeling and numerical
errors also require serious consideration in CFD
accuracy. The correct governing equations and bound-
ary conditions, and appropriate numerical algorithms
must be carefully selected. This can only be done with a
thorough understanding of the problem before the
simulation takes place. The CFD simulation of a
problem is, at best, as good as the selected governing
equations for the problem. A detailed description of
CFD quality control in indoor air is given by Sørensen
and Nielsen (2003b).
Fig. 6 Dispersion of the suspended 20-lm particles released
from a patient as predicted by computational fluid dynamics in a
six-bed ward. The birth time(s) of the particles are shown in
colors. Details of the simulations can be found in the study by
Qian and Li (2010)
CFD verification deals with the mathematics of the
model, while validation deals with its physics (Oberk-
ampf and Trucano, 2002). In other words, verification
is about equations being solved correctly, while vali-
dation is about the correct equations being solved. The
five most common sources of errors in verification
(Freitas, 2002) include insufficient spatial discretization
convergence, insufficient temporal discretization con-
vergence, insufficient convergence of an iterative
procedure, computer round-off, and computer pro-
gramming errors.
A number of journals, including the Journal of
Fluids Engineering (Roache et al., 1986), the Journal
of Heat Transfer (ASME, 1994) and the AIAA Journal
(1994), have an editorial policy statement for the
control of numerical accuracy, which includes the need

448

to describe the basic features of the method, that the
methods must be at least second-order in space, that
there is a need to assess artificial viscosity, and the
phase error in transient calculations, to establish grid
independence, to address the iterative convergence,
and to assess the accuracy of boundary and initial
conditions. The Indoor Air journal produced a guest
editorial statement (Sørensen and Nielsen, 2003a) on
ventilation CFD studies with similar requirements for
numerical accuracy, but with additional requirements
for validation. A procedure of calculation and report-
ing of discretization error estimates in CFD simulation
is available for situations when the experimental data
may or may not be available for comparison (Roache,
1997).
CFD validation involves comparison of the compu-
tational solution with experimental results. A number
of validation data sets are available in the literature
(Nielsen, 2010). One needs to quantify or estimate the
error in both the experimental data and CFD results
before comparing the two. One needs to consider the
reliability of the experimental data (e.g. because of
scaling effects), the modeling and matching of the
boundary conditions in the experiment and modeling,
as well as the other operating and physical conditions.
From our own experience, the 3D isothermal mixing
ventilation data set of Restivo (1979) and the 2D
natural convection case of Cheesewright et al. (1986)
are very suitable for new CFD users. The first data set
is ideal for testing the use of the basic turbulence
models without the buoyancy effect and the boundary
conditions for steady-state problems. The second data
set is ideal for testing the inclusion of the buoyancy
force using the Boussinesq approximation, as well as
the wall boundary conditions for predicting heat flux
at the walls. Readers are also recommended to consider
the benchmarking test cases available at http://www.
cfd-benchmarks.com.
In practice, validation is a process of refinement of
selecting the most suitable turbulence models or
making the right decisions about the flow assumptions.
A CFD user routinely makes some important decisions
about the governing equations and boundary condi-
tions before making a prediction. The fundamental
questions before initiating a prediction are the follow-
ing: (i) Is the flow expected to be laminar or turbulent?
(ii) Is the flow expected to be two dimensional or three
dimensional? (iii) Is the flow expected to have a
symmetry plane? (iv) Is the flow expected to have
one, two, or several solutions? (v) Is the flow expected
to be steady or unsteady? Such decisions will influence
whether the solutions obtained are the physical ones.
The following example demonstrates the importance of
having a high level of fluid mechanical knowledge.
Consider the simple IEA Annex 20 2D test case
(Olmedo and Nielsen, 2010). The assumption of
turbulent, steady, and two-dimensionality will lead
CFD and ventilation research
(a)
(b)
(c)
Fig. 7 Predicted path lines using different assumptions for the
flow in the simple International Energy Agency (IEA) Annex 20
2D test case (Olmedo and Nielsen, 2010). (a) Using the k-
model and assuming turbulent, steady, and 2D flows; (b) using
the k- model and assuming turbulent, steady, and 3D flows;
and (c) using the k- model and assuming turbulent, unsteady,
and 3D flows. The assumption of turbulent, steady, and three-
dimensionality will lead to the solution in (b) with a k- model.
It is slightly different from (a) in areas below the diffuser. We
know that the flow in reality could be three dimensional.
Examining the solution in the third dimension can confirm that
the flow is symmetrical. However, we still do not know whether
the flow has more solutions, although it is unlikely because the
flow is symmetrical around the middle plane. Only the trivial
solution with two unsymmetrical solutions to either side is a
likely situation (see Schälin and Nielsen, 2004)
to the path line solution in Figure 7a with a k-
model. It looks correct, but strictly speaking, we do
not know whether the flow in reality has more
solutions, or whether it is three dimensional, or
perhaps unsteady.
The assumption of turbulent, unsteady, and three-
dimensionality will lead to the solution in Figure 7c.
The path lines in the middle plane and the velocity
distribution in the lower part of the room show the
steady-state flow similar to the flow found by the
steady-state equations. It is now possible to conclude
that the flow can be predicted with steady-state
equations and even with a set of two-dimensional flow
equations.
Beyond building ventilation
The concept of ventilation can be found in a wide range
of other enclosed or semi-enclosed spaces. In general,
ventilation is to provide exchange of fluid into a space
to replace the existing gas/liquid and distribute the new
fluid within the space.
Figure 8 shows an incomplete collection of different
ventilation problems. The length and time scales are
449
Li & Nielsen

Biomechanical Eng Built environment Natural environment

100 year Not well studied -well studied Not well studiedOcean
Sea

1 year Lake

1 month Atm bound layer

Mice Reservoir
burrow Owl City cluster
1 day burrow Chicken
shed
Building City
1h Fox Room District
burrow Pool
Green house Street Forest canopy

Human Fish tank

1 min lung
Bird
lung

1s
1 mm 1m 1 km 1000 km

Fig. 8 Length and time scales of ÔventilationÕ of different ÔspacesÕ

approximate. The time scale of ventilation varies from
a few seconds (bird lung) to 1000 years (ocean), while
the length scale ranges from 1 mm to 1000 km. The
following three categories of problems may be found:
• Convection dominated problems – such as ventilation
of buildings, caves (Christoforou et al., 1996),
streets, swimming pools, greenhouses, fish tanks,
human lungs, and even bird lungs.
• Turbulence dominated problems – ventilation of a
district, valley (Sivertsen et al., 1983), forest canopy
(Oliver, 1975; Miller et al., 2007), city, city cluster,
atmospheric boundary layer (Rigby et al., 2006),
lake, sea, and even ocean (England, 1995).
• Molecular diffusion dominated problems – these are
mostly the homes of animals such as caves (Kow-
alczk and Froelich, 2010), burrows (Vogel et al.,
1973; Wilson and Kilgore, 1978; Maclean, 1981),
nests (Ar and Piontkewitz, 1992), fox burrow, owl
burrow, mice burrow (Shams et al., 2005), and ter-
mite colony (Turner, 1994). The ventilation ability of
animals for their homes is limited, and we are
changing their environment by making the ground
warmer and the ground level wind-less. Hence, it
may be fair to predict that we will have a new focus
for understanding ventilation conditions for ani-
mals, such as in mice burrows (Hansell, 1993; Liow
et al., 2009). Ventilation concerns the health of
animals – mammals and non-mammals – plants, and
Ôindustry processesÕ, those in the ground, in air, and
even in water.
CFD has already been applied to understand green-
house ventilation design and city ventilation (Hang
et al., 2009a). It may be anticipated that CFD will find
more applications to other ventilation problems shown
in Figure 8 where it may be difficult to apply exper-
imental methods directly. In the next 10 years, com-
puter speeds are expected to double every 2 years
(Orszag and Staroselsky, 2000; Fujii, 2005), and there
is a potential one to two order-of-magnitude increase
in computer capability. This means that CFD will be
readily applicable to the larger length scale and
multilength-scale problems such as city ventilation.

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