Title: Quantifying wind-driven rain on a heritage facade through computational fluid dynamics

Authors: Satyajit Ghosh; Yash Dugar; Namrata Kakoti; Chirag Shah

Addresses: School of Mechanical Engineering, VIT University, Vellore, Tamil Nadu, 632014, India; School of Earth and Environment, University of Leeds, UK ' School of Civil and Chemical Engineering, VIT University, Vellore, Tamil Nadu, 632014, India ' School of Civil and Chemical Engineering, VIT University, Vellore, Tamil Nadu, 632014, India ' School of Civil and Chemical Engineering, VIT University, Vellore, Tamil Nadu, 632014, India

Abstract: The Chennai Central Station is a heritage structure and a stellar landmark - its Neo-Gothic visage is an iconic structure in the heart of this thriving metropolis requiring preservation. A new computational fluid dynamical code is developed to map an ensemble of rain droplet trajectories during Chennai's most vulnerable northeast monsoon season. This involved developing a Random Walk Model for drop trajectories in inhomogeneous turbulence (Hunt et al., 2011). A look up table of the catch ratios of nonvertical droplet showers is presented (Blocken and Carmeliet, 2004). The extent of curing on the lime mortar façade is recommended based on the quantification of micro dents formed by the impinging droplets vis-à-vis the modelled droplet kinetic energy fluxes (Khare et al., 2014). Finally, a feasible curing method and other additional measures are suggested for the soft and permeable surface of the lime mortar (Moropoulou et al., 2005), in order to enhance the life of the heritage structure for the years to come.

Keywords: Lagrangian integral time scales; computational fluid dynamics; turbulent trajectories; heritage facades.

DOI: 10.1504/IJCAET.2021.111636

International Journal of Computer Aided Engineering and Technology, 2021 Vol.14 No.1, pp.27 - 38

Accepted: 07 May 2018
Published online: 07 Dec 2020 *

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