Virtual Reality in 3D Wind Flow Modelling for Sustainable Urban Building Design

Wind flow cannot be visualized by human’s eyes, but it can be observed by looking at the effects of the wind, for example, trees, wind turbine and when it hits our body whilst passing the area with the wind flow. It is hard to visualize the effect of wind on solid and rigid object, such as building as it is static. Therefore, to visualize the wind flow especially for sustainable urban development, a simulation of wind flow surrounding an urban building model needs to be conducted. In this research, 12 different Level of Details (LoD) of three-dimensional (3D) building models are used and reconstructed based on City Geography Markup Language (CityGML) standard. This is intended to scientifically indicate the different effects of 3D wind flow on different LoDs. Furthermore, the 3D wind flow simulation is extended into a Virtual Reality (VR) environment. By utilizing VR technology, the experience in perceiving the real effect of the wind flow is achieved in a control environment without having to visit the study area. As a result, these research outputs are categorized into two, which are the simulation of wind flow and the 3D visualization using VR. By analysing these outputs, LoD3.1 from the 12 LoDs used is chosen as the best to represent the 3D wind flow surrounding of a building model and VR is good to be implemented for better visualization. Thus, any responsible agency can benefit this research to get a better understanding on 3D wind flow characteristics and improve the urban development planning sustainability.