CFD for HVAC

[smo12345]

I am currently heading up the efforts within my company to purchase a computational fluid dynamics analysis software. I was wondering if anyone out within the HVAC industry has had the opportunity to work with this software and which software they feel are best suited for HVAC applications? I have spent the last month researching software and narrowed my decision down to a few, Fluent, Ansys CFX, or Star-CCM+. I also found a couple other software packages out there specific to HVAC such as Ansys Air Pak and Flovent, but felt that their capabilities were limited to specific problems. If anyone else has experience with CFD analysis specific to HVAC please let me know what you are using and your opinion of it. Also, what kind of learning curve was involved with getting to know the "code"?

 

[cry22]

You did not mention what you intend to do with CFD software.

The only people I know dealing with CFD in HVAC are those that work sepcifically in tunnel ventilation, modeling smoke control, tunnel temperature, etc.. to eastablish refuge location, tunnel height, etc.

Could be applicable if you deal with penitentiary design on a regular basis. Even with that, lack of true codes (IBC 2006 dumps all smoke control responsibility on the designer).

In regular building HVAC, I don't see a true market for it that would justify the cost of such a thing. I'd invest in energy medeling software instead these days instead of CFD.

 

[smo12345]

We are using the software to model smoke control, pressurization issues, airflow in and around buildings, clean rooms, data centers, issues with piping systems, etc.... Used correctly this software has the potential to solve a lot of problems and is a great marketing tool. We use energy modeling software as well. Thanks.

 

[marcoh]

CFD is used extensively extensively when designing HVAC systems for non-standard systems, eg stadiums, large atriums, concert halls, natural ventilation systems, smoke ventilation etc and most of these systems could not be accurately designed without using CFD.

Packages we use include Phoenics

http://www.cham.co.uk/

IES

http://www.iesve.com/CONTENT/default.asp?page=s28_1

or FDS

http://www.fire.nist.gov/fds/

(for fire modelling).

All take a significant amount of training before you can trust the results. Anyone can get a result but it takes experience to be able to drive the software with confidence.

 

[mikanical]

You may want to have a look at Ambiens developed by Environmental Design Solutions Ltd. or IES.

http://www.edsl.net/

http://www.iesve.com/content/

 

[lowedogg]

For Data Centers, I highly recommend Tile Flow. It is very easy to use and generates some nice graphics to impress your client.

To my knowledge, you cannot buy the software outright, you can only get a limited life license. I think that most of the better CFD software is like this. You can rent a license or send in parameters and have the software people build and run the model.

 

[BIPVguy]

Hi there,

You might be interested in TAS. It has 3 components: thermal simulation, HVAC and CFD analysis.

Besides extensive mechanical/electrical package, HEVACOMP also incorporates CFD component for temperature and air velocity distribution. Total price is cca. 5000 British Pounds.

Here is my 2 cents.... What CFD to select depends upon the level of details you are interested to achieve e.g while FLUENT would be suitable for research purposes and requires strong background, Hevacomp would be more suitable for practical calculations.

Hope this helps.
Cheers