Architectural Engineering: Beginner CFD Training Package — Ep 08
Dust Particles Entering the Room
- Lesson
- 08
- Run Time
- 12m 8s
- Published
- Jul 30, 2026
- Category
- Architectural
- Course Progress
- 0%
Description
This project uses ANSYS Fluent to study how airborne dust particles enter a room through its windows and then travel and deposit inside — a problem central to indoor air quality, occupant health, and the accumulation of sediment on interior surfaces. Outdoor air carrying a dust load infiltrates the space and disperses, with some particles following the main airflow and others settling out where the flow slows or recirculates. The 3D geometry, built in Design Modeler, represents a room fitted with two windows and a chimney, which together define the inlet and outlet paths for the air. Meshing in ANSYS Meshing yields 42,061 elements. Because deposition builds up over time rather than instantaneously, the simulation is run as a transient analysis.
Methodology
Dust-laden air enters through the two window inlets at 0.25 m/s and exits through a pressure outlet at the top of the chimney, establishing the through-flow that transports the particles across the room. The continuous air phase is treated with the laminar flow model, appropriate for the low inlet velocity. Particle transport and settling are modeled with a two-way coupled Discrete Phase Model (DPM), so that momentum is exchanged in both directions between the dust and the carrier air rather than the particles simply following the flow passively. This coupling captures how the particles are carried, slowed, and ultimately deposited as the airflow evolves in time.
Analysis
Post-processing provides 2D velocity contours, velocity vectors, and streamlines that reveal both the airflow paths through the room and the motion of the dust within them. The wind-driven flow carries particles along the main stream from the windows toward the chimney, while the recirculation zones that form away from the primary path trap particles and promote enhanced deposition and sediment accumulation. Together these results show where dust is most likely to settle inside the room and how the window-to-chimney flow governs its distribution.