BIM-CFD-based Thermal Analysis for Northern Buildings on Permafrost
Publication: Journal of Cold Regions Engineering
Volume 37, Issue 4
Abstract
In austere environments, such as northern regions, remote communities face many challenges such as permafrost warming and significant infrastructure deficit. With the increasing demand for soil stabilization methods beneath structures, adapting building designs has become a vital requirement for a sustainable and resilient future in the northern climate. This study proposes a novel improved framework integrated building information modeling (BIM), computational fluid dynamics (CFD), and heat transfer analysis to quantify the effects of infrastructure development on permafrost ground. Results reveal that buildings have altered the ground thermal regime, causing permafrost thawing at a variable rate depending on different factors. Building clearance height above the ground, soil physical property, building floor thermal conductivity, and wind speed and direction are vital factors in this scenario. The study also found that raising buildings by one meter above the ground is recommended for the northern climatic regions as it reduces the thermal stresses on the permafrost. Further, the thermal load due to buildings generated in the present study can also be used in the structural analysis for permafrost buildings.
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Data Availability Statement
The datasets generated during and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.
Acknowledgments
The authors would like to acknowledge the financial support from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada under grant RGPIN-2018-05454 for the third author. The authors are grateful to SharcNet for providing access to their high-performance computation facility and for the excellent support from their technical staff.
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Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Journal of Cold Regions Engineering
Volume 37 • Issue 4 • December 2023
Copyright
© 2023 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Nov 19, 2021
Accepted: Apr 6, 2023
Published online: Aug 10, 2023
Published in print: Dec 1, 2023
Discussion open until: Jan 10, 2024
ASCE Technical Topics:
- Architectural engineering
- Building design
- Building information modeling
- Building management
- Buildings
- Cold regions engineering
- Computational fluid dynamics technique
- Design (by type)
- Engineering fundamentals
- Engineering mechanics
- Fluid dynamics
- Fluid mechanics
- Frost
- Hydrologic engineering
- Infrastructure
- Permafrost
- Stress (by type)
- Structural analysis
- Structural engineering
- Structures (by type)
- Thermal analysis
- Thermal loads
- Thermodynamics
- Water and water resources
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