NUMERICAL WIND ENGINEERING: THE WAY AHEAD ?

This paper discusses the use of computational fluid dynamics (CFD) in the wind engineering context. It is argued that although the potential is undoubtedly great and CFD is thus increasingly being used in industry (for assessment of wind loads, pollutant dispersion, etc.) there are significant dangers. Without a sound understanding of the fluid mechanics appropriate to the particular problem being attacked, an awareness of the extent to which the code being used has been validated for similar problems and a clear understanding of the sources of uncertainty and the accuracy levels actually needed, great caution is required in using CFD as an integral part of the design process.