A data report on the effect of terrain types on the windcatcher's performance

Three-dimensional steady CFD simulations were conducted to produce the numerical raw data, including the ventilation performance indexes, to investigate the natural ventilation capability of a bidirectional windcatcher in the presence of the free wind stream disturbed by the different types of terrain. In order to produce the data, a step-by-step process was followed. The generated geometry of the building model along with its two-sided windcatcher (in Rhino) was imported into the Hexpress software to build up the computational grid and finally it was fed to ANSYS Fluent to run the simulations following the predefined numerical solution settings. The calculated simulations produced the flow field and temperature distribution inside the generic building exposed to the wind flow with a reference wind speed of 3.1 m/s at the reference height of 10 m (wind condition of the city of Nottingham, the UK). The effect of four various ground surface features (open, rough, suburban and urban areas) and two different thermal scenarios (outdoor temperatures of 21.5 ºC and 26 ºC) on the wind flow and indoor thermal conditions was studied. The reported numerical data contributes to future numerical and experimental investigations toward aerodynamic design improvements for the windcatchers.