Obayashi Corporation
FlowDesigner - 5-Minute Air Flow Simulation for Everyone!

Contributing
g to Realize Low
LowCarbon SocietySociby GoodPractices

Mr. Youji Ishizaki
Design Division, Equipment Design Branch,

His passion for environment preservationand energy-saving is influential.

Air-Conditioning/hygiene Group
andArchitecture Division BIM Promotion
Branch BIM Promotion grouphttp://www.obayashi.co.jp/

What is the policy for energy-saving, CO2 reduction,
sustainablity at Obayashi Corporation?
We are construction company and we have
civil-engineering, development, realestate, and manyother group companies. Mid-term management plan isshared with those group companies and it is the emphasis
on “conserving environment.” One of the activities is“contributing to low-carbon society by good practices.”
We are struggling to stop global warming. Japanese
government is taking challenging path to realize the“Kyoto Protocol”. We are asked to cooperate with theplan.
We a r e n o t o n l y a c t i v e l y p r o p o s i n genvironmentally friendly solutions but also persuingenvironmentally friendly construction practices.
Asshown in the figure, these are global warming,construction waste, chemicals, ecosystem preservation,and green supply.
Energy-saving is not only CO2
reduction but running-cost reduction, too. Therefore, it ishighly interested by all constructors.

How do you use FlowDesigner in your daily duties.
What do you think about FlowDesigner?
Proposals in environment concerns including
energy-saving tend to be with texts and numbers. It is hard
to make intuitive.
However, CFD results could bevisualized. FlowDesigner is easy to use and we are usingoften.
Analysis on energy-sadving solutions for data
centers, natural convection, air flow in atrium, ventillation
efficiency, avoiding short-circuit with outdoor units aresome of the examples.
We developed “Cool Air CaptureⓇ” for energysaving for data centers. This is a new idea. Most data
center cooling system were cooling air come from uonder
floor. However, there are many cables to block the air flow.
As result, there are some spots do not get sufficient air andcause “short-circuit.” To avoid this problem, most systemoversize the cooling capacities.
We revolutionalized the approach; air flow fromthe ceiling. It is easy to locate the inlets right above theheating spots and, as we all know, cool air naturally flow
down. Hot air goes up and captured to the system.
It is “Egg of Columbus.” People knows hot air
goes up and cold one does down. But sorting problems andfacts together and come up with a solution, it is not that
simple. Visualization helps to understand and sort thenumerous informations together to come up a solution.
CFD is a powerful tool but there are many pit
holes. Knowing the software well is important.

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FlowDesigner - 5-Minute Air Flow Simulation for Everyone!

<Cleanroom air controls - scheme><Cleanroom air controls - simulated>

What are you planning for energy-saving, CO2
reduction, sustainablity in daily duties?
Energy-saving has been to sacrifice comfort.
However, with intelligent productivity, energy-saving
and CO2 reduction can be comfortable.
Many
technologies and tools are now avilable and how tomix and make it to work requires most ingenuity.
We are utilizing Building Information
Modeling (BIM). New capability of FlowDesigner toimport CAD model and analyze enables us to utilize
the information quickly without introducing chancesof errors.

Please give us comment.
One of the benefit to use CFD for“visualization” is to get concensus from colleagues.
Another important one is “discovery.” People tend tostreotype. But visualization of CFD can easily makepeople realize that the view was distorted. “Cool AirCapture” described earlier was the case.
Everyone is trying to make good products. We
need to appeal the good ideas clearly and convincingly.
If we found something wrong, we should fix it quickly.
In order to realize low-carbon society and to improve
environment, we will utilize CFD more.

<Obayashi and Environment>

http://mi-research.com