Evaluation of the clogging rate of the reduced physical model in the test area o the water table apparatus

Abstract

The water table apparatus allows the qualitative visualization of natural ventilation in reduced physical models. The quality of the results depends on several parameters, such as the obstruction rate of the reduced physical model in the test area. However, there is a lack of scientific research that analyzes the influence of this rate on the quality of results. The objective of this article is to qualitatively evaluate the fluid behavior at different values ​​of clogging rate of the reduced physical model of the test area on the water table. The research method was divided into four stages: model selection; construction of reduced physical models; experimental tests on the water table and simulations of Computational Fluid Dynamics. In general, the behavior of the fluid in the experimental and simulation results is similar. However, the models with low and high obstruction rates present difficulties in handling and visualizing the behavior of the fluid. Thus, it is concluded that frontal obstruction rates (in cross section) between 24.14% and 30.49% and in-plan obstruction rates between 4.16% and 3.26% showed better performance. However, it is not possible to determine an exact scale for carrying out tests, as the scale will vary according to the proportions of the model to be studied.