An excerpt from Issue 116 of Arup Ireland Technical News May 2018

1. Issue 116 | May 2018 | Arup Ireland Technical News 5
Lunch and LearnLunch & Learn / Research
Collaborative research into the built environment using CFD
Reamonn MacReamoinn
As part of our ongoing Lunch &
Learn schedule, we recently
hosted four ‘bursts’ on
computational fluid dynamics
(CFD) research being undertaken
in collaboration with UCD.
Four students from the civil and
mechanical engineering
departments in UCD described the
research that they have carried out
in areas of interest to Arup. The
presentations are all linked below
and there is a video of the event
available here.
The research has been co-
ordinated and/or supervised by Dr.
Jennifer Keenahan in UCD.
Wind pressures on facades
(Christopher McGuil)
All structures are exposed to the
wind, and wind loading is an
important consideration
particularly in the façade design.
This project involves the CFD
study of wind pressures on façades
for the purpose of improving
efficiency in design of façade
elements.
Sheltering of traffic from
wind
(Yuxiang Zhang)
Wind loads can have a
significant influence on traffic
on bridges. Wind shields are
frequently installed on bridges
to mitigate the wind effects on
high-sided lorries. This project
involves a CFD study of wind
loads and the effects of wind
shielding of traffic on bridges.
Winds on cranes
(David Duffy)
Wind loading is an important
consideration for cranes used
during the construction of
buildings. Eurocodes and
design guides can be too
conservative or sometimes not
conservative enough when it
comes to calculating the
appropriate loads. This project
involves a CFD study of wind
loads that act on cranes.
Impact of helicopter
downwash on pedestrians
(Patrick Young)
The air flow patterns can be
quite complex when a
helicopter is close to ground
and can produce wind effects
that can be distressing to
pedestrians.
The purpose of this study is to
develop a helicopter model in
CFD that can be used to
evaluate the impact of
helicopter downwash on the
built environment and on
pedestrian comfort levels in
particular.