This paper presents a review and application results of a practical numerical method to determine both the spatial and temporal distribution of driving rain on buildings. It is based on an existing numerical simulation technique and uses the building geometry and climatic data at the building site as input. The method is applied to determine the three-dimensional spatial and temporal distribution of driving rain on a low-rise building of complex geometry for an on-site recorded rain event. Distinct wetting patterns are found, the features of which are analyzed. The comparison of the numerical results with full-scale measurements shows good agreement. The importance of time representativeness of climatic input data for the numerical method is emphasized. For this purpose, a new weighted averaging technique for wind and rain data is presented.

Authors: Bert Blocken; Jan Carmeliet, Ph.D.
Citation: Thermal Performance of the Exterior Envelopes of Buildings VIII
Keywords: December, Florida, 2001