The fluid dynamics of historic ventilation engineering
Project ID: 2228cd1243 (You will need this ID for your application)
Under Offer
Research Theme: Engineering
UCL Lead department: Bartlett School of Environment, Energy and Resources
Lead Supervisor: Josep Grau-Bove
Project Summary:
This project focuses on the computational simulation of passive ventilation strategies in buildings. It will focus on strategies found in historic buildings, which harness external differences in air pressure, wind velocity, and internal temperature gradients (i.e. caused by solar gains), to control air motion.
IMPORTANCE
This research will address the engineering challenge of the simulation of low-velocity, thermally driven flows in buildings, for which the available models are highly inaccurate. It will generate detailed datasets for the validation of future models.
The research will support climate adaptation strategies, by studying historic engineering design solutions for cooling. Environmental engineers and architects will be able to use the validated model as part of ventilation design.
WHAT WE WILL DO
This project will create a fluid dynamics (CFD) model of historic passive ventilation strategies. This model will be one step beyond the current state of the art in two ways: (1) it will be fully validated against measurements in real historic sites as well as a full-scale controlled environment, and (2) it will be based on high-resolution point-clouds, using a laser scanner recently acquired with EPSRC capital funding.
Two types of environments will be simulated. Firstly, 4 representative case studies selected after a quantitative review of different historic passive ventilation mechanisms. Secondly, a full-scale room in a highly controlled experimental environment, with detailed monitoring data of air velocity, surface and air temperature.
WHO ARE WE WORKING WITH
The PhD student will count on the support of Adam Frost from Historic Environment Scotland, who has pioneered the complex scan-to-CFD workflow used in this project within an EPSRC-funded PhD. The project is co-supervised by Prof. Luca Mazzei from Chemical Engineering, a CFD expert.
WHO ARE WE LOOKING FOR
An engineer, with experience in simulation, and an interest in historic buildings.