In March 2013, the new national Aquarium of Denmark – The Blue Planet – opened. With a location on the brink of the Sound and a very different architecture, it was necessary to gain an insight into the wind impacts on the building and the surrounding outdoor area.

SIince the national Aquarium of Denmark had grown out of its former premises at Charlottenlund, it moved to Kastrup on Amager and became The Blue Planet. 

In connection with the new building activities, FORCE Technology was engaged by the architect to calculate the wind flow around the building, which is shaped as a swirl.  To solve that task, we made use of Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) – computer simulation. One of the great advantages of CFD is the possibility of rapidly and efficiently achieving detailed information on the flow behaviour already in the design phase. 

By determining the flow behaviour, including pressure and velocity fields, you obtain good basis for diagnosing inappropriate flow conditions and determining requirements for optimisation, if any. To completely determine the wind flow, we performed simulations at various wind velocities and a total of 8 wind directions covering the wind 360 degrees around the building.

Optimised roof construction

One of the purposes of analysing the flow behaviour with CFD was to use the simulations to determine wind loads on the façade elements of the building in connection with dimensioning of the roof construction. By knowing the local wind loads on the building, it was possible to optimise the roof construction by subsequent reduction in the use of building materials.

Benefit for the visitors

Another purpose was to use the simulation to reveal possible critical conditions in connection with the wind environment around the building and make it possible to minimise the inconveniences for visitors in the outdoor areas.