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How does E+ determine wind pressure coefficients on surfaces that face an internal yard within the building?

asked 2025-11-26 05:33:08 -0600

BeckeRachel's avatar

updated 2025-11-26 12:48:25 -0600

We model a rectangular building with an internal yard (open to the sky) and windows facing this yard. In order to evaluate the effect of natural ventilation we run the fully calculated ventilation option. From the Engineering Reference document, it is not clear how E+ treats the wind pressure coefficients on the surfaces that face the yard. It seems that it will use the same coefficients as it uses on the externally exposed surfaces in the same direction, which is not correct, and would cause wrong patterns of air flows (i.e. air flow into the building on the surface that faces the wind direction instead of outflow as should be on all the surfaces facing the yard).

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@BeckeRachel by "fully calculated ventilation option", do you mean the Airflow Network feature?

Aaron Boranian's avatar Aaron Boranian  ( 2025-11-26 12:20:33 -0600 )edit

Yes, this is the feature

BeckeRachel's avatar BeckeRachel  ( 2025-11-26 12:28:23 -0600 )edit

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answered 2025-12-01 11:23:07 -0600

updated 2025-12-01 11:23:57 -0600

EnergyPlus is not a CFD program. As described under Wind Pressure Coefficient Type, the default option of SurfaceAverageCalculation should only be used for rectangular buildings. While you are also modeling a rectangular building, I think it should be clear that a 4-walled rectangular building is really what they mean. The default would not apply to a rectangular building with an internal yard.

So in your case, you would need to choose Input and then provide your own wind pressure coefficient values using the AirflowNetwork:MultiZone:WindPressureCoefficientValues object. As described here, WPC values can be obtained from wind tunnel measurements, CFD calculations, or from published values for different building shapes.

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Asked: 2025-11-26 05:33:08 -0600

Seen: 180 times

Last updated: Dec 01