Sports and Building Aerodynamics

by Bert Blocken
Week 1: Basic aspects of fluid flow
1. Fluid properties - part 1 (velocity, pressure, temperature)
2. Fluid properties - part 2 (density)
3. Fluid properties - part 3 (viscosity)
4. Flow properties - part 1
5. Flow properties - part 2
6. Fluid statics, kinematics, dynamics
7. Boundary layers - part 1
8. Boundary layers - part 2
9. Boundary layers - part 3
10. The atmospheric boundary layer
Week 2: Wind-tunnel testing
1. Why wind-tunnel testing?
2. Wind-tunnel types and applications
3. The atmospheric boundary layer wind tunnel
4. Wind-tunnel components
5. Measurements and flow visualization
6. Similarity and flow quality
7. Best practice guidelines
Week 3: Computational Fluid Dynamics
1. Computational Fluid Dynamics: what, why and how?
2. Approximate forms of the Navier-Stokes equations
3. Turbulence modeling
4. Some aspects of discretization
5. Near-wall modeling
6. Errors and uncertainty, verification and validation
7. Best practice guidelines
8. Computational Wind Engineering Part 1
9. Computational Wind Engineering Part 2
Week 4: Building aerodynamics
1. Wind flow around buildings part 1
2. Wind flow around buildings part 2
3. Pedestrian-level wind conditions around buildings part 1
4. Pedestrian-level wind conditions around buildings part 2
5. Pedestrian-level wind conditions around buildings part 3
6. Natural ventilation of buildings
7. Wind-driven rain on building facades part 1
8. Wind-driven rain on building facades part 2
9. Wind energy in the built environment part 1
10. Wind energy in the built environment part 2
Week 5: 100 m sprint aerodynamics
1. Why study sprint aerodynamics?
2. Mathematical-physical model of running
3. Wind effects
4. Altitude effects
5. Stadium aerodynamics and sprint records
6. Interview with a professional athletics coach
Week 6: Cycling aerodynamics
1. Why study cycling aerodynamics?
2. Wind-tunnel testing for a single cyclist Part 1
3. Wind-tunnel testing for a single cyclist Part 2
4. CFD simulations for a single cyclist
5. Aerodynamics of two drafting cyclists
6. Aerodynamics of drafting cyclist groups
7. Aerodynamics of car-cyclist combinations
8. Interview with professional cycling coaches from teams Belkin and RaboLiv
Part 1 training will be repeated twice on May 13 at 6.30 am (Argentina).
Part 2 training will be repeated twice on May 15 at 6.30 am (Argentina).
For any further information, please contact academic-seminar-
admin@ansys.com
Elsevier articles describing part of MOOC contents
now freely accessible by these links
Dear MOOC Participants
Elsevier has been so kind to provide a large number of articles that match directly with
several modules of the MOOC in Open Access especially for the MOOC Participants.
You find the links below, along with the corresponding weeks.
I would like to take this opportunity to express my special thanks to Elsevier and to Laura
Ballu and her team at Elsevier-Oxford for creating these links for us and for their support for
this MOOC.
There are short links, and also long links, in case the short links would give a problem.
Two of these articles will also be the subject of the peer-graded assignment. These are
labeled below with "***ASSIGNMENT***"
Best regards
Bert

WEEK 3 ON COMPU!"ON!# $#U"% %&N!M"C'
Solari, G. 2007. The International Association for Wind Engineering (IAWE): Progress and
rosects. Journal of Wind Engineering and Industrial Aerodynamics !": #$%&#'2.
htt:(())).sciencedirect.co*(science(article(ii(S0$+7+$0"07000207
http://bit.ly/1gb2IZu
,loc-en ,. 20$'. "0 .ears of /o*0tational Wind Engineering: Past, resent and
f0t0re. Journal of Wind Engineering and Industrial Aerodynamics $2!: +!&$02.
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S01676101!0002"
http://bit.ly/S#$!%7
,loc-en ,, Stathoo0los T, /ar*eliet 1. 2007. /23 si*0lation of the at*osheric 4o0ndar.
la.er: )all f0nction ro4le*s.Atmospheric Environment '$(2): 2%#&2"2.
htt:(())).sciencedirect.co*(science(article(ii(S$%"22%$00+00#%'5
http://bit.ly/1&'r&$s
6a*oni 6, ,loc-en ,. 20$2. /23 si*0lation of cross&7entilation for a generic isolated 40ilding:
i*act of co*0tational ara*eters. Building and Environment "%: %'&'#
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0(601(2(120001((
http://bit.ly/1ota)#o
WEEK ( ON )U"#%"N* !E+O%&N!M"C'
,loc-en ,, 1anssen W3, 7an 8ooff T. 20$2. /23 si*0lation for edestrian )ind co*fort and
)ind safet. in 0r4an areas: General decision fra*e)or- and case st0d. for the Eindho7en
9ni7ersit. ca*0s. Environmental odelling ! "oft#are%0: $"&%'.
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1(6!*12110026!7
htt:((4it.l.($022:,W
7an 8ooff T, ,loc-en ,, 20$0. :n the effect of )ind direction and 0r4an s0rro0ndings on nat0ral
7entilation of a large se*i&enclosed stadi0*. $omputers ! Fluids %!: $$'+&$$"". ;;;;
ASSIG<=E<T ;;;;
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S00!7$(010000!60
http://bit.ly/1m+,-.S
7an 8ooff T, ,loc-en ,, Aanen >, ,ronse*a ,. 20$$. A 7ent0ri&shaed roof for )ind&ind0ced
nat0ral 7entilation of 40ildings: )ind t0nnel and /23 e7al0ation of different design
config0rations. Building and Environment '+(!): $7!7&$#07.
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0(601(2(1100076
http://bit.ly/1kQGddC
WEEK , ON C&C#"N* !E+O%&N!M"C'
3efrae.e T, ,loc-en ,, ?oninc-@ E, 8esel P, /ar*eliet 1. 20$0. Aerod.na*ic st0d. of
different c.clist ositions: /23 anal.sis and f0ll&scale )ind&t0nnel tests. Journal of
Biomechanics '%(7): $2+2&$2+#.
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0021$2$010000$"
http://bit.ly/1m1)g*m
,loc-en ,, 3efrae.e T, ?oninc-@ E, /ar*eliet 1, 8esel P. 20$%. /23 si*0lations of the
aerod.na*ic drag of t)o drafting c.clists. $omputers ! Fluids 7$: '%"&''". ;;;;
ASSIG<=E<T ;;;;
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S00!7$(01200!!!6
http://bit.ly/1/iS0n)






Thu 8 May 2014 8:30 AM PDT
CO++ECE% #"NK'- 3 conferences on ).ilding
!erodyna/ics incl.ding 'ports !erodyna/ics
1lease see below the announcement o& three con&erences in 2uilding .erodynamics3
also including Sports .erodynamics 4now with corrected lin0s5. 'ou are 6ery welcome7
2est regards
2ert
CWE2014
6
th
Symposium on Computational Wind Engineering
June 8-12, 2014, Hamurg, !ermany
htt:(())).c)e20$'.org(

"#-$E#%&-2014
1'
th
Con(eren)e o( the "talian *sso)iation o( Wind Engineering
June 22-2+, 2014, !eno,a, "taly
htt:(())).in7ento20$'.org(

EE-./
/
th
"nternational Symposium on En,ironmental E((e)ts on
-uildings and .eople - *)tions, "n(luen)es, "ntera)tions,
0is)om(ort
&)toer 20-22, 2014, Cra)o1, .oland
htt:((si).org.l(ee47(
Wed 7 May 2014 5:00 AM PDT
Tomorrow: special input by em.prof. Robert
Meroney based on his 50 years of
experience!
Dear Participants
Special announcement. Emeritus Professor Robert N. Meroney, one of the most prominent
researchers in the history of Wind Engineering, told me he has been watching this MOOC
and he has kindly agreed to provide some material especially for the participants of this
MOOC. This material is of extra-ordinary value, and you will receive it tomorrow.
Em. Prof. R.N. Meroney and Em. Prof. S. Murakami are internationally recognized as the
founding fathers of Computational Wind Engineering, as will be explained in week 3,
modules 8 and 9, of this MOOC.
Em. Prof. Robert N. Meroney and his team provided many pioneering achievements,
especially related to the combination of high-quality CFD simulations with high-quality wind-
tunnel testing for validation of those CFD simulations. This was the ground-breaking
approach that is now followed by wind engineering researchers around the world, and it
has been set as a standard for acceptance of CFD work in international scientific journals.
These early and exceptionally valuable contributions have been published in a large
amount of papers that you can download from this
website: http://www.engr.colostate.edu/~meroney/
Please stay tuned to receive more input from Em. Prof. R.N. Meroney tomorrow.
Very many thanks to Prof. Meroney for his contribution to this MOOC.
Best regards
Bert
Tue 6 May 2014 4:00 PM PDT
Question to all participants: which wind energy
roof works, and which is useless?
Wind energy in the built environment is a hot topic. This leads many inventors to try to
establish a break-through in this field. Sometimes based on good ideas, but - unfortunately
- more often based on wrong intuition, leading to designs that do not work very well, or do
not work at all. Four years ago, my research team was asked to analyze the performance
of a wind energy roof. In this roof, a wind turbine is positioned in the middle of the roof, and
the roof is shaped as a "venturi-channel", intended to substantially increase the wind speed
in the narrowest part of the contraction. See figure 1 and 2.
The designer at that time provided two designs, one with 4 vertical guiding vanes and one
with 36 vertical guiding vanes in the roof (see figures 3b and 3c). The vanes were intended
to accelerate the flow towards the center of the roof - where the wind turbine would be
positioned - by the so-called Venturi effect. We added two extra configurations to the
analysis: a design without vertical guiding vanes (see figure 3a; of course the top part of
this roof is not floating but will be supported by slender columns which were not in the CFD
simulation) and a reference case (see figure 3d: a regular roof, without disk-shaped
construction above it).
So the questions for discussion here are:
1) Which configuration do you think is the best?
2) Which configuration do you think will not work at all?
I can already tell that the configuration in figure 3b is now commercially sold and that it won
quite a lot of national prizes in the Netherlands.
Please feel free to share your thoughts, and, most important... be critical!
Closure is provided in week 4, module 9.
Looking forward to your thoughts
Best regards
Bert
FIGURE 1
FIGURE 2
FIGURE 3
Tue 6 May 2014 12:00 PM PDT
Nomenclature & glossary
Dear Participants
The nomenclature and glossary are now available.
I will post a thread on the forum where you can suggest additional items to be included in
the glossary, as we work our way through the 6 weeks of the MOOC.
So please only suggest additions there, not as a separate thread.
Best regards
Bert
Tue 6 May 2014 4:00 AM PD
Welcome to week 2!
Dear MOOC Participants
Welcome to week 2!
Week 2 deals with wind-tunnel testing. It consists of 7 modules with one quiz at the end.
The modules and the quiz are now available.
In the course of week 2, also:
- the extra module for week 1 will be prepared and uploaded
- all information about the peer-graded assignment will be uploaded
- the date for the physical meet-up in Eindhoven will be announced
Best regards
Bert
Sun 4 May 2014 3:00 PM PDT
New research result: Bahrain WTC is the wrong
way around.
Dear participants
This MOOC contains some brand new research results, which is one of the reasons why it
took us quite long to get it ready. These results will be presented in the coming weeks, but
some main conclusions are already communicated to you via the announcements and
emails from the Coursera website.
For the first of these new research results, please see this link: Bahrain WTC wrong way
around.
The Bahrain World Trade Center is without doubt an excellent design. A lot of attention has
been devoted to shaping the two towers in such a way that they do not only amplify the
wind speed in the passage between the two towers but also align it to be parallel to the
wind turbine axes. However, the design would have been ever better if the whole building
design (two towers and turbines) would have been turned 180around.This would have
provided 14% more wind energy on a yearly basis.
Turning the towers and turbines 180around to get more energy appears very illogical and
counter-intuitive, but a series of dedicated wind-tunnel measurements and Computational
Fluid Dynamics (CFD) simulations on a model of the Bahrain WTC all confirm this result.
The reason for this coincides with the first question asked in the introductory module of our
MOOC, about which V-shaped building configuration yields the highest wind speed in the
passage. This is always the diverging arrangement, not the converging arrangement (see
figure and references to scientific papers below). Why and how this happens will be
explained in detail in in Week 4, Modules 9 and 10.
Note: we performed simulations both generic building configurations in 3D (see figure 1
below) and the actual configuration of the Bahrain WTC (see figure 2 below).
Best regards
Bert
REFERENCES: (to view, open link in new tab)
-lo)2en -, 3oonen ., Stathopoulos %, Carmeliet J4 20084 * numeri)al study on the
e5isten)e o( the $enturi-e((e)t in passages et1een perpendi)ular uildings4 Journal of
Engineering echanics - A"$E 1'461278 1021-10284 6preprint8 7
-lo)2en -, Stathopoulos %, Carmeliet J4 20084 Wind en,ironmental )onditions in
passages et1een t1o long narro1 perpendi)ular uildings4 Journal of Aerospace
Engineering - A"$E4 216478 280-28/4 6preprint8 7
FIGURE 1:
FIGURE 2:
Sun 27 Apr 2014 3:00 PM PDT
Welco/e 0 short /ovie on aerodyna/ic s.it
Dear MOOC participants
Thank you for registering and for joining this MOOC on Sports & Building Aerodynamics!
After 8 long months of preparations, we are almost ready to go. Later today, the
introductory module and all modules of Week 1 will be published on the Coursera platform,
at which time you can start watching them and doing the quizzes.
Please start by watching the introductory module, as it contains quite some important
information on this MOOC.
As an illustration of what you can learn in this MOOC, see this short You Tube movie on an
aerodynamic running speed-suit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hQZVWjuroiM How
and why this suit works as a speed-suit, will be explained in detail in Week 1 of the MOOC.
Week 1 contains quite some theory and it might be experienced as a rather tough week.
Nevertheless, we have tried to make it as attractive as possible by providing many
examples and explaining the relevance of the theory for cycling aerodynamics. The motto
for Week 1 is derived from Aristotle: "the roots of education are bitter, but the fruit is sweet".
If you have friends or family that are also interested in this MOOC, please tell them they
can still register. They can still join the Signature Track up to 2 weeks after the start of the
MOOC.
We look forward to working with you in this MOOC!
Thank you
Best regards
Bert
Sun 27 Apr 2014 12:59 AM PDT
'hort "ntrod.ction Movie now available 1 with
2ighlights3 4.i5 4.estions and Co.rse Contents
Dear Participants
Thank you very much for subscribing to the MOOC on Sports & Building Aerodynamics.
Our Short Introduction Movie has now been released. Please have a look at this site or at:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TbaKkVY43Dg
It took us quite a while to get this finished but we hope you will like it.
I look forward to working with you in this MOOC.
Best wishes
Bert Blocken
Mon 20 Jan 2014 11:30 AM PST