NUMERICAL SIMULATION OF WIND PRESSURES ON A LOW-RISE BUILDING COMPLEX WITH GABLE ROOFS

Numerical simulation was carried out to predict wind-induced pressures on a low-rise single house with gable roofs and a building complex consisting of six low-rise houses with gable roofs. The simulation was based on Reynolds-averaged N-S equations and the RNG κ-ε turbulence model, which is extended from the standard κ-εturbulence model. Tetrahedral elements with good adaptability were employed to divide the computational domain. The finite-volume method with non-staggered cell-vertex scheme was used to discretize the governing differential equations and the SIMPLE pressure correction iteration algorithm was adopted to solve the resultant nonlinear equations. Good agreement was reached between the computed results and wind-tunnel test results of the single gable-roof house. The behavior of wind pressures on the surface of low-rise building complex with gable roofs was discussed.