New Review Paper Published in Journal of Wind Engineering and Industrial Aerodynamics
Published:
Our review paper “Complementary use of CFD simulations and wind tunnel tests in wind engineering: A practical classification and examples of their integration” has been published in Journal of Wind Engineering and Industrial Aerodynamics.
Yoshihide Tominaga, Zitao Jiang
Journal of Wind Engineering and Industrial Aerodynamics, Vol. 276, 106499, 2026
Understanding airflow is fundamental to many problems in the built environment, including wind around buildings, pedestrian wind environments, natural ventilation, and pollutant dispersion. Two major approaches are commonly used to investigate these phenomena: Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) and wind tunnel testing.
Rather than considering CFD and wind tunnel testing as competing approaches, this review discusses how their complementary use can improve the accuracy, efficiency, and reliability of wind engineering research.
The integration of CFD and wind tunnel testing is classified into four forms:
- Validation — using wind tunnel measurements to validate CFD simulations
- Model improvement — improving numerical models based on experimental evidence
- Multi-scale integration — combining the two approaches across different spatial and temporal scales
- Wind tunnel test enhancement — using CFD to support and improve the design and interpretation of wind tunnel experiments
This work was conducted in collaboration with Prof. Yoshihide Tominaga of Niigata Institute of Technology, the first author of the paper.
Our research group combines CFD, wind tunnel experiments, and field measurements to investigate airflow and environmental problems in buildings and cities.