California Academy of Sciences

RWDI was retained to conduct multiple studies for this unique project, these studies included the following.

• exhaust dispersion
• natural ventilation
• internal wind comfort
• wind pressures on cladding
• structural loads

RWDI assessed the impacts from several sources that may create odors and air quality issues, such as kitchen cooking hoods, the emergency generator, cooling towers, and laboratory fume hoods. Recommendations were made on placement and stack heights of exhausts.

Wind tunnel modeling and subsequent structural analysis was used to determine wind pressures on the cladding surfaces and structural loads on the Piazza roof and canopies. Structural loads were provided as peak uniform uplift, downforce and unbalanced structural wind loads acting on the Piazza roof structure, and recommendations for the structural wind loads acting on the outer canopies.

The purpose of this study was to use our boundary layer wind tunnel to model natural ventilation within the large open interior of the CaoS under relatively windy conditions, to ensure that excessive wind speeds were not present within the building. Testing was conducted for numerous combinations of operable windows and louvers to assess the performance of the controls under different wind velocities and directions. The results were used to configure mechanical control sequences under windier conditions. The results compared favorably to previous CFD modeling conducted by another firm.