CFD simulations of the wind environment around an airport terminal building

The aim of this work is the investigation of the wind environment around a large airport terminal building. The study addresses the less understood, yet important, effects of turbulence generated by a dominant flow obstacle on the wind field of a nearby runway. The flow is fully turbulent, isothermal (neutral atmospheric conditions are assumed) and incompressible. Three-dimensional Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) simulations have been performed based on the Reynolds Averaged Navier–Stokes (RANS) equations. Wind tunnel data are available for the mean and turbulence velocities over the runway in the wake of the terminal building to assist in defining boundary and initial conditions and for comparison with the simulations. Qualitative and quantitative treatment of the results is carried out indicating the extent of the influence of the building on the wind field patterns. Particular attention is paid to the study of the effects of the building on the in flight conditions over the nearby runway.