HVAC & building design
Validating ventilation and comfort design before construction — the cost of simulation is a small fraction of the cost of fixing a finished building.
Common problems
- Uneven heating and cooling — on the same floor one area is too cold while another stays hot; adjusting the units does not help because the cause lies in the air distribution
- Condenser units in the wrong place — the hot air they reject is drawn straight back in, cutting efficiency and overloading the equipment
- Heat build-up in workshops — natural ventilation is not enough and the working area exceeds the temperature limit
- Poor air quality — CO₂ accumulating where people are dense, even though the supply flow rate meets the standard
- Car park smoke — the extraction system fails to clear the smoke under the assumed fire scenario
Why simulation is needed
Design standards tell you how much air to supply, but not where that air goes once it leaves the diffuser. Two designs with identical flow rates can perform very differently.
Fixing a ventilation system after the building is finished costs many times more than simulation; the value of virtual testing is most evident in this field.
What we cover
Comfort & air quality
PMV/PPD assessment, temperature and velocity distribution in the occupied zone, CO₂ and pollutant concentrations.
Industrial ventilation
Natural and forced ventilation, extract fan layout, temperature control in production areas.
Fire safety
Smoke control in car parks and enclosed spaces under defined fire scenarios.
Equipment & buildings
Condenser unit placement, wind loading on structures, wind-tunnel-type simulation.
Simulation methods
- Forced and natural convection, combined where required
- Solar radiation through glazing and the building envelope
- PMV/PPD thermal comfort indices from the Fanger model
- Pollutant and CO₂ transport, air age
- Smoke and visibility models for fire scenarios
What you receive
- Temperature, velocity and comfort maps in the occupied zone
- A quantitative comparison of diffuser, fan and condenser unit layouts
- Compliance assessment against the design limits for each area
- Images and video for presenting to the project owner
How we work
Receive the documents
Architectural drawings, system schematics, design heat loads.
Build the model
Geometry simplified only as far as the air flow stays correct.
Compare the options
The current design and the improvement options run side by side.
Hand over
Report, visual material and specific recommendations.
Technical articles from the team
Condenser unit placement
Why the position of the condenser unit decides the efficiency of the whole system.
Read the article →Industrial ventilation
Optimizing extract fans and ventilation effectiveness in workshops.
Read the article →HVAC energy efficiency criteria
The indicators worth using to assess an HVAC system.
Read the article →CFD in HVAC — an overview
Applications and benefits of CFD simulation in the HVAC field.
Read the article →Has your ventilation design been verified?
Send the drawings and design heat loads — CFDWAYS will make a preliminary assessment before you build.
Other industries: Environmental engineering · Chemical engineering · Energy, oil & gas