Towards a Comprehensive Workflow for Mesh Generation in Urban Wind Engineering using CFD

Paper in proceeding, 2025

Computational fluid dynamics modelling supports the design and development of modern urban infrastructures. Because its inherent calculation process hinges upon the discretization structure of the computational grid, it predetermines the efficiency and reliability of the entire analysis. While valuable guidelines and recommendations for mesh generation in urban simulations exist scattered in the literature, a unified and well-defined workflow integrating these practices and governing the principles of the mesh generation process is yet to be fully established. The current paper aims to contribute to this field by introducing a structured comprehensive workflow for mesh generation suited for urban airflow analyses. It outlines the necessity for such a framework and highlights the main steps and considerations in the process, along with best practice guidelines and application examples. Designed as a practical guide, this framework can support engineers and practitioners in implementing simulation-based design in urban planning more effectively. This work serves as a precursor to a forthcoming detailed publication that will provide a complete version of the mesh generation framework, including a summary of existing best practices, relevant statistics, and an example implementation.