Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) is increasingly used for natural ventilation studies because it provides whole-flow-field data, allows full control of the boundary conditions, and does not suffer from similarity constraints. In addition, it allows efficient parametric studies and the simultaneous (i.e. coupled) simulation of outdoor wind flow and indoor air flow. In this paper, CFD for coupled wind-induced natural ventilation is evaluated by comparison with detailed wind tunnel measurements with Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV). The focus is a parametric analysis of the influence of the inflow turbulent kinetic energy and the near-wall treatment on the predicted indoor mean velocity pattern. The 3D steady Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) equations are solved with the RNG k-e turbulence model for a generic isolated building model with large openings. It is shown that the influence of the inlet turbulent kinetic energy on the mean velocity is very large (up to a factor 5), while the influence of the near-wall treatment is limited to at most 130%.
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