Air Conditioning of an Office by Two Fans (HVAC) — ANSYS Fluent CFD Simulation TrainingThis project simulates the performance of fan-driven airflow inside an office for HVAC operation, with the room containing one computer and four lamps. The computer is made of plastic and acts as a heat source of 700 W/m³, while each lamp is made of glass and acts as a heat source of 2500 W/m³. Two fans mounted on the upper part of two office walls drive air into the room, and the doors and windows are assumed to exchange heat with the ambient air by convection.MethodologyThe 3D geometry was created in Design Modeler. It represents a cubic space — the office — made up of several components, including people, lamps, computers, and desks. An unstructured mesh was generated in ANSYS Meshing, with finer resolution applied to the internal components of the office, for a total of 547,820 elements.Because the fans blow air at a rapid rate, the flow is compressible, so the ideal-gas model is used to define the air. Under this model the density is not constant but varies with pressure and temperature according to the ideal-gas law. Each fan is defined in Fluent using a polynomial porous-jump condition.ResultsThe goal of the study is to examine the effect of the blown airflow on the components and people in the office, as well as its influence on the heat sources in the model. The velocity and thermal performance of the two fans are clearly visible in the corresponding contours and vectors. Given the relatively small number of heat sources, the HVAC performance of the two fans appears reasonable for this large office.

Fan Heater for HVAC System — ANSYS Fluent CFD SimulationDescriptionThis project examines the performance of a fan heater and the resulting movement of heated air within a room, using ANSYS Fluent under steady-state, pressure-based solver conditions with gravity effects included. A fan heater combines two mechanisms: a heater warms the air, and a fan drives that heated air out into the room, so the flow is shaped by both forced convection (from the fan) and natural convection (from the buoyant warm air). The study captures how the heated air circulates and distributes through the space. Within the Fan: Beginner CFD Training Package, this project opens the fan-driven HVAC applications, combining a fan's airflow with heat transfer in a single room.MethodologyThe geometry was created in Design Modeler and meshed in ANSYS Meshing using an unstructured mesh, resulting in a total of 207,707 elements. Air circulating through the room passes over a heater positioned on one side, while the fan drives the heated air into the space. Turbulent flow is modeled with the RNG k-epsilon model, and the energy equation captures the temperature distribution throughout the domain. The ideal-gas equation is used to account for the variations in air density resulting from the temperature changes, so the buoyancy of the warm air is captured alongside the forced flow from the fan.AnalysisThe simulation yields contours of pressure, velocity, and temperature, among other parameters. The pressure contour shows a reduction in pressure near the heater, driven by the rise of the heated air, which moves upward through a combination of forced and natural convection. The streamline contour illustrates this flow pattern in more detail: as the air heats up, its density decreases and it rises toward the upper regions of the room; as it travels upward, it gradually loses heat, becomes denser, and eventually descends — establishing a recurring circulation pattern within the space. By the end of this project, you'll be able to set up a fan-heater simulation combining forced and natural convection, apply the ideal-gas model to capture buoyancy, and interpret the pressure, velocity, and temperature fields that describe how heated air circulates through a room.

Split System: Room HVAC — ANSYS Fluent CFD SimulationDescriptionThis project uses ANSYS Fluent to simulate heated airflow distribution inside a room conditioned by a split air conditioner HVAC system, applying the fan module to model the airflow driven by the unit's two fans alongside natural buoyancy effects. A split system delivers conditioned air to a room through its indoor units, and the way that air circulates determines the comfort and temperature uniformity of the space. The simulation investigates how the heated air moves and distributes through an occupied space containing office equipment. Within the Fan: Beginner CFD Training Package, this project applies the fan module to a real split-system HVAC unit, building on the earlier fan-driven room cases toward a complete air-conditioning setup.MethodologyThe room geometry, including two split AC units and office apparatus, is built in SpaceClaim and meshed in ANSYS Meshing using an unstructured grid of 547,820 elements. The airflow from the units is modeled with the fan module, and turbulent flow is resolved using the realizable k-epsilon model, with the energy equation activated to capture the temperature distribution throughout the domain. The ideal-gas equation is applied to capture the air density variation with temperature, enabling the buoyancy effect to be modeled alongside the fan-driven forced convection.AnalysisStreamline contours reveal the resulting flow pattern, driven by a combination of forced convection from the fans and free convection from buoyancy. Heated air rises due to its reduced density, gradually cools as it reaches the upper regions of the room, and falls back down — creating the characteristic circulating flow pattern observed in the results. From these results you can evaluate how effectively the split system distributes conditioned air through the room, how temperature and airflow develop around the office equipment, and where warmer or stagnant regions form. By the end of this project, you'll be able to set up a split-system HVAC simulation using the fan module, combine forced and natural convection with the ideal-gas model, and interpret the streamline and temperature fields that describe how conditioned air circulates through an occupied room.

Master Solar Radiation Analysis on Buildings with ANSYS Fluent CFD SimulationExplore the intricate interplay of solar radiation and building thermal dynamics in our advanced tutorial, “Solar Radiation effect on a House CFD Simulation”. This comprehensive episode in our “ANSYS Fluent: All Levels” course offers an in-depth exploration of environmental heat transfer mechanisms, crucial for architects, energy engineers, and CFD specialists in sustainable building design.Unlock Advanced CFD Techniques for Solar-Influenced Building DesignLearn to harness the power of ANSYS Fluent to simulate and analyze complex heat transfer behaviors in residential structures exposed to solar radiation. This tutorial provides a detailed approach to modeling radiation, convection, and conduction phenomena for accurate thermal analysis of buildings.Key Learning Objectives:- Master the setup of 3D house models in ANSYS Design Modeler - Develop proficiency in unstructured mesh generation for architectural simulations - Understand the application of the Discrete Ordinates (DO) model for solar radiation - Analyze natural convection and wind effects on building thermal performanceComprehensive Simulation Setup and MethodologyGain hands-on experience in configuring and executing a professional-grade CFD simulation for solar-influenced building thermal analysis, covering all aspects from geometry creation to advanced environmental modeling.1. Precise 3D Geometry and Mesh Generation- Create optimized 3D models of gable houses using ANSYS Design Modeler - Implement unstructured meshing strategies with ANSYS Meshing - Optimize mesh quality for accurate flow and thermal simulations (696,480 elements)2. ANSYS Fluent Configuration for Solar Radiation and Natural Convection- Set up pressure-based solver for incompressible air flow - Configure Discrete Ordinates (DO) model for solar radiation simulation - Implement gravitational effects for natural convection modeling3. Advanced Data Analysis and Visualization Techniques- Extract and interpret temperature, pressure, and velocity contours - Analyze solar radiation patterns and their impact on building surfaces - Evaluate the effects of wind direction on heat distributionReal-World Applications and Industry RelevanceThis tutorial is crucial for professionals and researchers in:Sustainable architecture and green building designHVAC system optimization for energy efficiencyUrban planning and microclimate analysisRenewable energy integration in residential buildingsKey Simulation Outcomes and Thermal Insights1. Solar Radiation Impact Analysis- Interpret temperature distributions on building surfaces exposed to sunlight - Identify shadow effects and their influence on local thermal conditions2. Natural Convection Evaluation- Analyze buoyancy-driven air flow patterns inside the house - Assess the effectiveness of building design in promoting natural ventilation3. Wind Interaction Assessment- Evaluate the formation of wake regions and their impact on building thermal performance - Understand the combined effects of solar radiation and wind on overall heat distributionElevate Your CFD Skills in Environmental Building SimulationBy completing this specialized tutorial, you’ll gain:Cutting-edge skills in applying CFD to complex building thermal analysisProficiency in setting up and analyzing solar radiation simulations in ANSYS FluentDeep understanding of the interplay between solar radiation, natural convection, and wind effectsInsights into optimizing building designs for improved thermal comfort and energy efficiencyWho Should Take This Advanced TutorialArchitects specializing in sustainable building designEnergy engineers focused on building performance optimizationCFD analysts working on environmental and urban heat transfer problemsGraduate students in architectural engineering or building physicsDon’t miss this opportunity to significantly advance your CFD simulation skills in environmental building analysis. Enroll now in our “ANSYS Fluent: All Levels” course and master the art of simulating solar radiation effects on buildings with ANSYS Fluent!

DescriptionThis simulation models office ventilation and heating by solar radiation using ANSYS Fluent software. The problem is carried out and investigated through CFD analysis.This project investigates the ventilation, air circulation, and heat transfer within a room. The heat is emitted by people, objects, and electrical equipment inside the room. The thermal energy from human activity, the thermal energy from a working computer, and the heat emitted by light bulbs are all treated as sources of heat generation. The person, acting as a heat source, produces a constant heat of 1928 W/m³, while the computer produces a constant heat of 7285.7 W/m³, and each lamp produces a constant heat of 26356.5 W/m³.This project also investigates the effect of continuous air circulation inside the room. In addition, a glass window is included on one of the walls to study the effect of solar radiation. The glass surface faces the solar rays to improve heat transfer by solar radiation. The side walls of the room and its floor exchange heat with the outside environment by convection. The ambient air temperature is assumed to be 300 K, and the convection heat transfer coefficient is 19 W/m²·K.The geometry of the present model is drawn using Design Modeler software. The model consists of a room with a volume beneath it. The room contains a human, a computer, two lamps, and other objects, with a dedicated window designed on one of its side walls. The model is then meshed using ANSYS Meshing software. The mesh is unstructured, and 309,156 cells have been created.MethodologyThe main goal of this project is the thermal analysis and investigation of the different modes of heat transfer. Some of the modeled objects generate heat, so a heat source is defined for them to represent the heat emitted. In this way, the heat source represents the heat produced per unit volume.Solar ray tracing is also used to investigate the effect of solar radiation. To characterize the quality of the solar radiation, the direct and diffuse solar irradiation must be specified. Another mode of heat exchange with the surrounding medium is convection. To apply this method, the free-stream temperature of the environment and the convection heat transfer coefficient must be defined.ConclusionAfter the simulation, contours of temperature and velocity are obtained, along with the velocity vectors and streamlines inside the office. The vectors and flow lines clearly show the circulation of airflow within the office, indicating the proper operation of the air conditioning system in balancing the temperature inside the room. The temperature contours show how heat is transferred throughout the model, with a clear rise in temperature around the heat sources.

DescriptionThis project simulates the HVAC performance of a room fitted with a solar chimney using ANSYS Fluent. The model consists of two main parts: the interior of the room and a sloping solar chimney mounted on the room's ceiling. As a passive, sun-driven ventilation device integrated into the building envelope, the solar chimney is a natural subject for architectural engineering, where the goal is to improve indoor comfort and air quality through the building's own design rather than mechanical systems.The solar chimney has glass plates on its side surfaces that are in contact with the outdoor environment. As a transparent medium, the glass admits solar energy, while a plate at the back of the chimney acts as a heat-absorbing surface. The absorbing surface behind the chimney is assumed to be held at a constant temperature of 335.15 K. The glass surface exposed to the outdoor environment, in contrast, exchanges heat with its surroundings by convection: the ambient air temperature is 308.15 K, and the convective heat transfer coefficient is 8 W/m²K. In addition, the solar energy absorbed inside the chimney is represented as a constant volumetric heat source of 15,000 W/m³.MethodologyThe 2D geometry was created in Design Modeler and comprises two parts: a room measuring 2 m × 3 m, and a solar chimney 2 m long, inclined at 45 degrees to the room's ceiling, with a width of 0.15 m. Meshing was performed in ANSYS Meshing using a structured grid of 42,846 elements.The airflow enters through the inlet at the bottom of the room under a pressure-inlet boundary condition. Air at 308.15 K is drawn into the room by the heat generated within the solar chimney and then carried out to the external environment, establishing a continuous, buoyancy-driven ventilation path through the space.ConclusionOn completion of the solution, two-dimensional contours of pressure, temperature, and velocity were obtained, along with pathlines and velocity vectors.In addition, the temperature distribution across the chimney was plotted at a point midway along its length (1 m from the inlet and outlet), together with the velocity variation across the chimney outlet section. The transverse temperature profile at a point 1 m from the chimney inlet, over the 0.15 m thickness, was extracted and compared against the corresponding temperature profile reported in a reference paper, providing validation of the simulation.As the results demonstrate, the heat of the solar chimney successfully induces natural airflow that ventilates the room passively — drawing fresh air in at the base and expelling it through the inclined chimney — illustrating how a solar chimney can be integrated into an architectural design to enhance indoor ventilation with minimal energy input.

DescriptionThis project uses ANSYS Fluent to simulate a wind tower system paired with a qanat, a traditional passive cooling arrangement rooted in the architecture of hot, arid regions. Passive ventilation techniques rely entirely on natural driving forces rather than mechanical equipment, and they generally fall into two categories: wind-driven systems, where airflow is generated by pressure differences, and buoyancy-driven systems, where temperature-induced density differences create natural convection. The wind tower and qanat combination sits in a hybrid category, drawing on both mechanisms at once.In this setup, a tall tower rises above the building and works together with an underground channel — the qanat — which acts as a natural cooling reservoir. When wind strikes the tall structure, it creates a pressure imbalance: high pressure builds on the windward face while a low-pressure zone forms behind it, driving suction that pulls air through the system. Meanwhile, inside the underground channel, incoming hot air passes over a body of cool water, picking up moisture and losing heat before rising into the building through the floor to condition the interior air.To keep the model manageable, the water surface inside the channel wasn't explicitly represented; instead, a fixed-temperature boundary condition of 278 K was applied to the channel walls to represent its cooling effect. The incoming hot air enters the channel at 0.2 m/s and 300 K. Window surfaces exposed to sunlight and outdoor heat were assigned a constant temperature of 298 K. The geometry, built in Design Modeler, consists of three connected components: the room, the tower, and the underground channel. Meshing was carried out in ANSYS Meshing using an unstructured approach, producing 402,198 cells.MethodologyThe simulation was run as a steady-state, time-independent case using a pressure-based solver in ANSYS Fluent. Because natural convection plays a central role here, buoyancy effects were captured by allowing air density to vary with temperature rather than treating it as constant — warmer, lighter air rises, which is what drives hot air out through the tower. This density variation was modeled using the incompressible ideal gas law, where density depends on temperature and operating pressure rather than on local pressure fluctuations, consistent with the assumption of constant pressure throughout the domain.ConclusionThe simulation produced temperature, pressure, and velocity contours in both 2D and 3D, along with velocity vector fields. The temperature results clearly show the cooling pathway: cool air drawn in through the underground channel and hot air escaping through the tower opening. The pressure field confirms the mechanism driving this exchange, with high pressure outside and lower pressure inside the room and tower pulling hot air upward and out. The velocity vectors trace this circulation clearly, showing cool air entering rapidly at floor level, circulating through the room, and exiting through the tower once conditioning is complete. Overall, the results confirm that this passive wind tower and qanat system successfully performs natural air conditioning without any mechanical input.

Double Facade Airflow — ANSYS Fluent CFD SimulationThis project simulates airflow through the gap between the two walls of a building's double facade using ANSYS Fluent, under steady-state, pressure-based conditions with gravity effects included.Geometry and MeshThe 3-D geometry was created in Design Modeler and consists of a rectangular chamber measuring 3 m × 1.5 m × 0.2 m, fitted with 120 rows of thin shading plates angled at 45 degrees, arranged in a shutter-like configuration. The model was meshed in ANSYS Meshing using an unstructured mesh, totaling 4,264,442 elements.The ambient air surrounding the shells is assumed to be at 300 K, with a heat transfer coefficient of 10 W/m²·K. The shading plates positioned between the two facade walls play a key role in driving the ventilation process within the cavity.The aim of the study is to characterize the upward airflow and heat transfer occurring in the space between the two shells and around the shading plates.MethodologyThe energy equation is enabled to capture temperature distribution, with turbulence modeled using the standard k-epsilon model. Pressure boundary conditions equal to atmospheric pressure are applied at both the inlet and outlet of the cavity, allowing buoyancy-driven upward flow to develop naturally from density variations caused by pressure and temperature changes. Since the primary driver of these temperature changes is solar heating of the shading plates, the Discrete Ordinates (DO) radiation model is used together with the solar ray tracing model.ResultsThe simulation produces 2-D and 3-D contours of pressure, velocity, and temperature, along with 2-D and 3-D pathlines. The 2-D contours are presented in the XY plane at the mid-section of the cavity between the two facade walls. Velocity distribution is also plotted along a line in the XZ plane at a height of 2 m from the floor, running through the geometric center between x = -0.1 and x = +0.1, consistent with the 45-degree orientation of the shading plates.Geometry and mesh files, along with a comprehensive training video walking through the full solution process and result extraction, are available as part of this package.

DescriptionThis project uses ANSYS Fluent to simulate combined convective and radiative heat transfer inside a dome-shaped mosque building, applying the radiation module to capture solar heating effects. The building's indoor thermal environment is driven by solar radiation on the sidewalls, roof, and dome, along with a ground-floor heat source, making it a representative case for radiation-influenced indoor climate analysis in architectural CFD.MethodologyThe 3D geometry is built in SpaceClaim and meshed in ANSYS Meshing using an unstructured grid of 674,066 elements. Convective heat transfer at the sidewalls, roof, and dome is modeled against a surrounding ambient temperature of 309 K with a heat transfer coefficient of 10 W/m²K, while the mosque floor (20 cm thick) receives an applied heat flux of 30 W/m². Radiative heat transfer is captured using the Rosseland radiation model, suited to surfaces and materials with high absorption coefficients, with an absorption coefficient of 0.8 assumed for the building surfaces. The solar load model is used to represent the effect of incoming solar radiation. Since the focus is on internal heat transfer rather than external flow, no inlet or outlet boundary conditions are required.ConclusionResults include 2D (YZ and XZ sections through the building center) and 3D contours of temperature, pressure, and velocity, along with velocity vector fields. The temperature distribution reflects the combined effects of radiation and floor heating, while the velocity vectors reveal internal airflow circulation, with the strongest vortex forming in the dome region due to its direct exposure to solar radiation.

Engine Room Ventilation System of a Ship — ANSYS Fluent CFD SimulationDescriptionThis project presents a complete CFD simulation of a ship's engine room ventilation system — one of the most critical thermal-management challenges in marine engineering. Engine rooms house compressors, pumps, fans, diesel engines, and electric motors, all packed into a confined space and all generating significant heat. Without proper ventilation, equipment overheats, efficiency drops, and safety risks rise. In this project, you'll use ANSYS Fluent to simulate how injected cool air at 300 K distributes through the engine room and removes heat from the operating machinery, allowing you to evaluate ventilation effectiveness and identify hot spots. As the opening project of the Marine Engineering: Beginner CFD Training Package, it introduces the CFD workflow through a self-contained internal-airflow problem in a familiar marine setting.MethodologyThe 3D engine room geometry is imported and prepared in SpaceClaim, then meshed in ANSYS Meshing with an unstructured grid of roughly 706,000 cells to resolve the complex internal flow domain and its multiple equipment volumes. The energy equation is activated to capture the heat transfer, and the machinery is modeled as distributed heat generators through volumetric heat sources defined in the cell-zone conditions — 12,500 W/m³ for the diesel engines and 8,333.33 W/m³ for the electric motors. The marine-specific boundary conditions comprise a mass-flow inlet supplying 35 kg/s of air at 300 K and dual pressure outlets for natural exhaust. Appropriate turbulence and solver settings are chosen for this internal forced-convection ventilation problem.AnalysisPost-processing produces temperature, velocity, and pressure contours, along with streamlines and velocity vectors that show how the cool air reaches the hot equipment surfaces. From these results you can evaluate ventilation effectiveness — identifying whether the cool air actually reaches the hottest machinery zones and where hot spots remain. The same CFD workflow built here — volumetric heat sources, forced ventilation, and internal recirculation — applies directly to engine rooms in submarines, ferries, cargo vessels, and offshore platforms, as well as to data centers and industrial machinery enclosures on land. By the end of this project, you'll be able to set up an internal forced-convection ventilation simulation, model machinery as volumetric heat sources, and interpret the flow and temperature fields to assess how effectively a confined marine space is cooled.