2. Calculating facade pressures using computational fluid dynamics (CFD)

Wind engineering is a relatively recent discipline that aims to characterize the impact of wind phenomena on human activities. Wind is a complex, difficult-to-predict meteorological phenomenon whose origins lie in solar radiation. Solar radiation heats the Earth's surface more at the equator than at the poles, generating a global circulation of atmospheric gases.

The wind corresponds to local instabilities in this air flow, caused by local temperature gradients and the planet's rotation, among other factors. The energy carried by the wind is then dissipated by friction, thanks to the roughness of the terrain. This dissipation of energy results in the exertion of pressure forces on the terrain's constituent elements, including buildings