Sports and Building Aerodynamics

This series of lectures outlines some basic aspects of fluid flow. It starts with the fluid properties velocity, pressure, temperature, density and viscosity. It continues with flow properties such as viscous versus inviscid flow, compressible versus incompressible flow, confined versus open flow, steady versus unsteady flow, stationary versus non-stationary flow and laminar versus turbulent flow. It also addresses some basic components of fluid statics, kinematics and dynamics. The last lectures are focused on the important concept of the boundary layer. Laminar versus turbulent boundary layers, boundary layer separation and obstacle form drag versus friction drag are explained. Finally, the module ends with a lecture on a special type of boundary layer: the atmospheric boundary layer, in which sports and building aerodynamics take place.

This series of lectures provides some fundamental aspects of wind-tunnel testing. First, the reasons why wind-tunnel testing is still important are outlined. Next, different types of wind tunnels and applications of wind-tunnel testing are discussed. As a special type of wind tunnel, the atmospheric boundary layer wind tunnel is described. Further lectures focus on the different wind-tunnel components, on measurements and flow visualization, on similarity and flow quality and on important best practice guidelines for high-quality wind-tunnel testing.

This series of lectures provides the basics of Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) with focus on application to Sports & Building Aerodynamics. First, the possibilities and limitations of CFD are outlined. Next, the main approaches for solving and modeling turbulent flow are explained, after which some basic aspects of discretization and near-wall modeling are described. After that, we focus on the important topics of errors, uncertainties, verification and validation in CFD. The series is concluded with two lectures that provide an overview of the past achievements and future challenges in Computational Wind Engineering.

The lecture series on Building Aerodynamics consists of 10 lectures. The first two lectures provide basic information about the wind flow around isolated buildings and generic building groups. Three lectures focus on the important problem of pedestrian-level wind discomfort and wind danger around buildings. One lecture addresses natural ventilation of buildings, focused on the ventilation study for a large football stadium in the Netherlands. Two lectures address wind-driven rain on building facades, and the final two lectures are devoted to wind energy in the built environment, where some important misconceptions are highlighted and explained.