Fluid-particle motion (green) was computed by CFD for a person exhaling. Throng Dang, student researcher at Syracuse University’s EQS STAR Center, Syracuse, N.Y., assisted in the simulations.

Studying air flow problems, such as personal ventilation and contamination removal in aircraft cabins, has researchers using CFD meshing software Gridgen from Pointwise Inc., Ft. Worth, Texas (gridgen.com) to model the personal micro environments (PME). Features such as solid modeling and anisotropic tetrahedra elements let researchers progress more quickly than would a conventional mesher from a CAD model to a complex and useful mesh.

PMEs include the breathing zone and air flow surrounding an individual's head, which includes more complex geometries and physics than many other CFD tasks. “An important mechanism that transports pollutants into the breathing zone is convection due to bulk motion of PME air,” says Gridgen's Chris Sideroff. “Flows created by interactions of HVAC, indoor appliances, and human occupancy are particularly complex. CFD lets us isolate and study these processes.”