Variation of the Sectional Drag Coefficient of a Group of Buildings with Packing Density

Reynolds-averaged Navier–Stokes (RANS) simulations of turbulent flow over groups of buildings with different packing densities are reported. The results for a selected packing density are compared with direct numerical simulations (DNS) previously validated against wind-tunnel data. The present study is focused on average properties of the flow, especially on the drag coefficients, and is a first attempt to provide information on these parameters (their values are not generally known) for a range of packing densities, for a given staggered arrangement of cubes using RANS methods. However, some of the limitations of RANS have come to light. Hence, it is recommended that such simulations are ‘calibrated’ against experimental or DNS data, as is done here.