Integrated BIM and VR for Interactive Aerodynamic Design and Wind Comfort Analysis of Modular Buildings

Modular building is becoming a common sight due to government policies promoting greater automation and productivity. When moving towards modularity, indoor comfort within volumetric modules, such as levels of humidity and temperature, natural ventilation, and air pollutant transport, have a major effect on human health and well-being. Computational fluid dynamics simulations (CFD) are used to evaluate the efficiency of natural ventilation. However, designers usually find it difficult to visualize the CFD simulation results, which can deepen users’ understanding of the wind environment and help optimize the design of modular buildings. To overcome this challenge, this paper presents an integrated approach based on building information modeling (BIM) and virtual reality (VR), with the aim of analyzing the aerodynamic design and wind comfort for modular buildings. The framework consists of four salient components. First, a new method, combining OpenStreetMap and Dynamo, is proposed to achieve rapid urban modeling of modular buildings. The second step involves the use of CFD to simulate the outdoor wind environment surrounding modular buildings. The third step emphasizes the integration of CFD-computed data with VR applications to create an immersive virtual environment for designers to analyze the wind environment of design alternates. Finally, the visual experience of non-professional users is used to improve the ventilation of the building and support more informed decision marking at the early stage of building design. The proposed framework is illustrated via a case study that focuses on a group of modular housings in the urban area of Singapore. The results indicate that visualization of CFD simulations in VR provides designers with more details regarding the actual space, and it is expected to help optimize the architectural design.

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