Autodesk CFD Exercise: Office & Energy

INTRO SUMMARY: In the following introductory exercise, use Autodesk CFD to explore
temperature distribution and the energy implications of a design change for a small office space.

Overview

This exercise also assumes you have familiarity with the Autodesk CFD interface. If not, it is
recommended that you first review help system sections on Model Navigation and User
Interface.

In the following exercise, a small office space will be simulated to determine temperature
distribution and energy implications of a design change. It is common for many AEC
applications, including this one, to consider fluid flow and heat transfer together (i.e., conjugate
heat transfer) to evaluate system performance.

Upon completion, please consider reviewing this alternate AEC Tutorial.

Objectives

● Provide a concise overview of the typical AEC simulation process in Autodesk Autodesk
CFD.
● Determine the impact in energy savings of replacing single-pane windows with triple-
pane windows for this office space.
Assumptions

The simulation will have several simplifying assumptions to reduce overall complexity and
expedite completion of this introductory exercise:

● Empty office space with no occupants or equipment thermal loads.

● Buoyancy effects (natural convection) and solar radiation transmitted through
windows is assumed to be negligible.
● All external surfaces are adiabatic (i.e. insulated) EXCEPT for the 3 windows.

NOTE: Later on, these initial assumptions will be addressed as more detail is added to the office
space simulation.

Simulation Parameters

● Total flow rate: 158 cfm

○ Based on ~4 air exchanges per hour for a room volume of 2,370 cubic feet
● Summer conditions
○ Supply air temperature: 65F
○ Outside (ambient) air temperature: 90F

Item Location Description U-factor

(BTU/hr-ft2-R)
 1 Window Single-pane, steel frame 1.18
Triple-pane, steel frame 0.39

2 Inlets 79 cfm each @ 65F

3 Outlet P = 0 psig

Get Started
Autodesk CFD Exercise

1. Download the exercise file

2. Load CAD geometry
a. Open up the Autodesk CFD interface and click New in the upper left ribbon to
start a new study.

Note: Simulations can also be directly launched from within most popular CAD platforms,
including Autodesk Revit and Inventor. More information can be found here in the help. In this
case, we are directly loading a CAD neutral file format.
b. Click the Browse … button, navigate to the folder where the exercise file has
been saved and select the file exercise1-office.sat.

Tip: CFD simulations require considerable reading/writing to the hard drive and should always
be run on a fast local drive; shared network or USB drives must be avoided.
c. Type in the design study name as “exercise1-office” and then click the Create
new design study button.
d. Right click the Scenario 1 node in the Design Study Tree to the left, click on
Rename and type in “SinglePane” for the scenario name.

3. Assign materials to the domain volumes:

a. Select the Materials button in the ribbon. Click Select All in the Selection ribbon
(or right-click in the graphics window and click Select All).
b. Click Edit in the ribbon Materials menu (or right-click in graphics window and
click Edit) to launch the Materials dialog box. Make sure that the column to the
right of Type is set to Fluid.
c. Click in the column to the right of Name and click Air from the pulldown list.
d. Click the Apply button to assign the material. The color (light blue) of the
domains will change to match the color in the lower left corner of the graphics
window.
 Air assigned to all of the volumes as described above.

4. Allow heat to enter/exit through the windows:

a. Change the setup task to Boundary Conditions by clicking the Boundary
Conditions button in the top ribbon (or click the Boundary Conditions node in the
Design Study bar to the left).
b. Click directly on each of the 3 surfaces which represent the windows as depicted
below.
 The three window surfaces are highlighted in red once they are selected.

c. Click on Edit in the ribbon Boundary Conditions menu.

d. In the Boundary Conditions dialog that pops up, click in the column to the right of
Type, scroll down the pulldown list and click on Film Coefficient.
e. Click Coefficient Units and set to BTU/ft2/h/R.
f. Enter a Film Coefficient of 1.18 to represent a single-pane window.
g. Set the Temperature Units to Fahrenheit.
h. Set the Ref Temperature to 90 and hit the Apply button. A stripe will appear on
the window surfaces confirming that they have an applied condition. The color of
this stripe matches the legend in the lower left corner of the graphics window.

TIP: A film coefficient applied directly to the air surface represents the U-factor of the wall,
window, door, etc. ****See appendix for background information on wall and window
component representations****.
4. Allow air to exit the simulation domain
a. Rotate the model if needed to see the outlet. Zoom in and click on the surface
representing the single outlet, pictured below. Click on Edit in the ribbon
Boundary Conditions menu.
A pressure opening is applied to this selected face to allow air to exit the room.

b. In the Boundary Conditions dialog, click in the column to the right of Type, scroll
down the pulldown list and click Pressure.
c. By default, the pressure is set to 0 gage. Click the Apply button.

5. Specify the inlet conditions coming from the HVAC system:

a. Rotate the model to see the underside of the floor and click directly on the 2
surfaces representing the inlets.
Each of the selected inlets will have a flow rate of 79 cfm assigned to represent the
total air flow rate of 158 cfm defined in the system parameters earlier.

b. Click Edit in the ribbon Boundary Conditions menu.

c. In the Boundary Conditions dialog, click in the column to the right of Type, scroll
down the pulldown list and click Volume Flow Rate.
d. Set the Unit to ft3/min.
e. Enter a Volume Flow Rate of 79 and click the Apply button.
f. In the ribbon Selection menu, click Select Previous (or right-click in graphics
window and click Select Previous) to reselect the 2 inlet surfaces.
g. Click Edit in the ribbon Boundary Conditions menu.
h. In the Boundary Conditions dialog, click in the column to the right of Type, scroll
down the pulldown list and click Temperature.
i. Set the Temperature Units to Fahrenheit.
j. Set the Temperature to 65 and click the Apply button. The boundary conditions
in the study bar should now appear as follows:
 The Design Study Bar shows that a total of 6 different surfaces have 3 types of boundary
conditions assigned to them. This format makes it easier to spot mistakes in assignment or
units.

6. Define a mesh for the simulation domain

a. Click Mesh Size in the ribbon Setup Tasks menu and then click the Autosize
button in the ribbon over to the right.
b. Click on the single large air volume representing the office space and click on
Edit in the ribbon. Move the Size Adjustment slider to the left to approximately
0.50 and then click the Apply button at the bottom of the meshing dialog.
c. Zoom in as needed and click on the 3 small air volumes representing the 2 inlets
and single outlet and then click Edit in the ribbon. Move the Size Adjustment
slider to roughly 0.25 and then click the Apply button.
7. Assign solving parameters:
a. Click the Solve button in the ribbon
b. In the Control pane of the Solver dialogue, set the Iterations to Run to 300.
c. Click the Solution Control button, click the Advection … button, set the
Advection scheme to ADV5. Click the OK button twice to return to the main
Solve dialogue.

NOTE: Advection schemes are used to “tune” the solver for better accuracy and stability for
certain applications. In this case, ADV5 is more adept at capturing flow recirculation and
thermal stratification.
d. Click the Physics tab and then click on the box next to Heat Transfer to activate
thermal calculations.
e. Click the Solve button to initiate the simulation. Once the solver starts, the
interface automatically will go to Results mode and the ribbon menu will change.
NOTE: Depending on your hardware, it may take a minute or two for the solver to setup the
model and initiate the solving sequence.
8. Results Visualization
a. While the simulation is solving, change the Global Result in the upper right
corner of the ribbon from Velocity Magnitude to Temperature.

TIP: You can interact with the model and view preliminary results while the solution iterates to
convergence, allowing any errors or omissions to be detected early on and corrected.

Model showing global temperature along with the convergence graph while the solver is
iterating to a solution.

9. After the simulation is completed, clone the model to evaluate the following design
change:
a. Right click on the SinglePane scenario, click Clone …, type in “TriplePane” and
click on the OK button (or hit the Enter key).
b. Expand the Boundary Conditions branch in the Design Study Tree by clicking
the small triangle to the left of Boundary Conditions.
c. Right click on the Film Coefficient boundary condition in the Study Bar and click
on Edit …
d. Change the film coefficient from 1.18 to 0.39 to reflect the increased insulation of
the triple pane window and click Apply.
10. Solve the cloned scenario
a. Click on Solve in the ribbon (or double click on the Solve node in the Study tree).
 b. Click the Solve button to initiate solving.

NOTE: This performs a “restart” analysis from the end of the previous converged solution and
solves faster since the flow field has already been developed. Changing the continue from
option in the solver dialog to iteration 0 would start the analysis from the beginning.
11. Using the Decision Center to compare temperatures and the heat flux going through the
windows:
a. Once the simulation has completed solving, click the Decision Center button in
the ribbon (or hit the Spacebar once on your keyboard) to open the Decision
Center bar in the lower left of the interface.
b. While still in Results mode change the Global result to Temperature if needed.
Click on Summary Image once in the upper left corner of the Results ribbon.
Note that a summary images is added to the Decision Center.
c. Now change the Global result to Wall Heat flux from Temperature and click
Summary Image again.
d. In the Decision Center bar, right click the Design Review Center node and then
click on Update all images.
e. In the Output bar in the bottom center of the interface, you will see 2 thumbnail
images for Image 1 appear. Design1:SinglePane is already in the main graphics
window. Click on the Design1:TriplePane thumbnail image and while holding
the left mouse button down, drag it up to the main graphics window and release
the button. The slider bar will now become active in the Output Bar. Move the
slider back and forth and note how the temperatures on the windows are
noticeably lower for the triple pane window.

With the slider to the left, the SinglePane results are shown. Moving the slider to the
right will pull up the results for the TriplePane scenario.
 f. Click on the Image 2 node in the Decision center and repeat the process of
dragging the TriplePane thumbnail image up into the main graphics window.
Using the slider, note how the heat flux going into the office also has been
noticeably reduced with the triple pane windows.

The left window in the SinglePane scenario has much more heat flux (mostly green on the
legend) than the same window in the TriplePane version (light blue on the legend).

Do these heat flux results make sense? Review the office layout again. Can you explain the
reason why the window to the left has more flux than the other 2 windows? The answer is
revealed in the summary below.

12. Evaluating Energy Implications

a. Click on the Wall Calculator button up in the Results ribbon to exit the Decision
Center environment. Click on the 3 window surfaces, check the box next to
Heat flux and then click the Calculate button. The total wattage entering the
office space is approximately 40W.
b. Activate the SinglePane scenario by double clicking the SinglePane node in the
Design Study Bar and then click on its Results node.
c. Repeat step (a.) above to calculate the flux entering the office with single pane
windows. The wattage should read approximately 60W.
CONCLUSION

The triple pane window reduces the amount of energy entering the space by 20 Watts. This
number can be used to calculate the total energy savings over a given period based on the time
that the space is exposed to these conditions.

Did you come up with an explanation as to why the left window has more flux than the other
windows? Heat flux flows in the direction of higher temperatures to lower temperatures and
amount of heat flux is proportional to the difference of these temperatures. For the left window,
the cold air inlet is centered below it so there is a plume of colder air directly behind this window
(the inlet is located between the 2 windows in the other room). This plume of air increases the
local temperature variation from outside to inside and results in a higher flux value. The velocity
of the inlet air plumes can be visualized using planes or isosurfaces, as shown below:

Velocity plumes from the supply inlets are visualized with cut planes on the left and by using
an iso surface on the right.

This is just one of the reasons why CFD insight is such a valuable asset for AEC applications. It
directly reveals the hidden performance of complex situations that hand calculations, design
guidelines, or intuition alone can miss.
 APPENDIX: WALL AND WINDOW COMPONENT CHARACTERIZATION

Walls, windows, doors, and other exterior elements influence system performance by absorbing
and transferring energy. The impact these components have can be characterized
mathematically as simulation inputs and material properties, rather than explicitly representing
their detailed geometry. This decreases simulation complexity and runtime without a loss in the
results fidelity.

The characterization method will be determined by the analysis scope. Walls, windows, doors,
and other exterior elements are accounted for with film coefficient boundary conditions or
homogenous volumes with effective conductivities.
Film coefficients are boundary conditions that represent U-factors (also known as thermal
conductance), which are the inverse of R-values (also known as thermal resistance).
Effective conductivities are a single thermal conductivity value that represents the conductivity
of multiple elements.

U-Factors
In Autodesk CFD, U-factors can be applied directly as film coefficient boundary conditions. Film
coefficients are used when detailed output of a system’s exterior surroundings are not required.
For example, the wake of wind behind a building is not important to an analysis of an interior
office space; in this instance a film coefficient would be used to represent the exterior walls and
exterior air domain without explicitly modeling them.

An internal air volume with film coefficients defined can replace externally facing components such
as walls and windows.
1: Internal air
2: Walls
3: Windows
4: External air
U: Film coefficients defined on internal air volume surfaces

U-factors can be given by manufacturers (for direct input as a film coefficient) or derived
mathematically:
U = 1/(Ri + R1 + R2 + … Ro)
Where:
Ri = The resistivity of the inside air convecting to the inside surface of the wall (solved in
Autodesk CFD)
R1, R2= Resistivity of each component of the wall.
Ro = The resistivity of the outdoor air convecting to the outside surface of the wall
A film coefficient representing the U-factor of a construction element can be derived with
material properties and physical dimensions.
The thermal resistances are used to derive the U-factor that will be applied in Autodesk CFD.

(1) Air volume

(2) Construction element (brick wall)
(3) External environment
For example, in the following pair of simulations, results from a simulation with an explicitly
modeled brick wall are compared to results that come from a U-factor applied as a film
coefficient to the air volume.
The U-factor derivation below assumes a 3.5 inch brick wall, conductivity of .72 W/m-K and an
external heat transfer rate of 5 W/m^2-K (typical natural convection value). This equates to a U-
factor of ~3 W/m^2-K that is applied to the external air domain as a film coefficient to replace the
explicitly modeled brick wall.

The top image depicts temperature results for a simulation with air and an explicitly modeled
brick wall.
The bottom image depicts an equivalent simulation with air and a U-factor applied as a film
coefficient to represent the brick wall.
XY plot taken from left to right for both analyses along the dashed line in upper image. The
bottom row plot confirms identical temperatures across both analyses.

Deriving U-factors for common construction elements is usually avoided by the use of common
values provided by component manufacturers. Several common components and values are
found below:
Location U (BTU/hr-ft^2-R) U (W/m^2-K)

Natural Convection 1.76 10

Wall - wood studs, R13 Insulation .08 .45

Window, single glass 1.1 6.24

Window, double glass, ¼ air space .59 3.36

Window, triple glass .39 2.21

Door, 1” wood .64 3.64

Film coefficients are the preferred method to account for externally facing construction elements
when the external air domain is not critical to the simulation.
Effective Conductivities
When construction elements (walls, windows, and doors) are not represented with film
coefficients, a homogenous characterization can be used for Autodesk CFD to solve the heat
transfer rates and temperature gradients around and through the elements.
A single homogenous volume with an effective conductivity can be used to represent a layered
construction or network of elements, rather than explicitly modeling the individual components.
For example, mathematically representing a multi-pane, gas-filled window as a single volume is
preferred over modeling each individual component.

Conduction through thin layers of glass

panes and gas (e.g., argon) of a window
(left) can be more simply modeled by
calculating an equivalent thermal
resistance and applying it to a single
volume (right).

In most instances the effective conductivity or thermal resistance of a system is provided by

manufacturers. Deriving the effective conductivity, if not readily found, is done by calculating
the thermal resistance of each component and combining the values with physical dimensions.

The effective conductivity is used in Autodesk CFD as the conductivity material property for a
single volume representing the system, and can be calculated as follows:
Where:
Ke = Effective conductivity of the characterized element

Le = Thickness of the characterized element

Ae = Area of the characterized element

R1,2,n = Thermal resistance of respective element

Characterizing elements in this manner effectively accounts for their influence and allows
Autodesk CFD to solve for their thermal gradients and heat transfer rates.

Windows
Windows may contain numerous panes of glass, gas, trim, and framing details that are
unnecessary to model in simulation. Replacing these details with a single volume with an
effective conductivity will adequately capture the influence of this system.

Left: Detailed window model containing window panes, trim, and framing.
Right: Single volume with an effective conductivity material property defined in Autodesk CFD

Walls
Walls are composed of multiple elements such as framing, insulation, and fascias that are
unnecessary to model in Autodesk CFD. They can be characterized as a homogenous volume
with an effective conductivity.
Left: Wall composed of framing, insulation, and facias.
Right: A single volume with an effective conductivity defined in Autodesk CFD.

Summary
Exterior and interior construction elements such as walls, windows, and doors can be
characterized with film coefficients or homogeneous volumes with effective conductivities.
Representing these construction elements with boundary conditions and simple volumes greatly
reduces s