If you want to register for the first time, please go to https://actiflowportal.com, and click on the word “Registration” below the Login button on the left side of your screen.

As a next step, please fill out all fields of the registration form. The fields indicated with a red asterisk (*) are obligatory. When all fields are filled out, then click the “Register” button at the bottom of the form.

After registration, you will be contacted within 3 working days to schedule an onboarding call

• During this call, we would like to get to know you a bit better, and we will explain you how the Wind Assessment Tool works. This way, we would like to make your experience with the tool as smooth as possible
  
• During the call, we will also ask you for information relevant for our administration and invoicing
  
• Right after the onboarding call, you will have access to the tool using your email address and password

If you want to log in, please go to https://actiflowportal.com, and fill out your email address and the password you selected during your registration process. Then click the “Login” button and you are ready to go

If you want to run just a single wind assessment, then simply pay per assessment, without subscription fee or any other cost

If you think you will be using the wind tool more often, and you value free consultancy, then go for our subscription and enjoy the following benefits:

• Largely reduced rates for assessment and support credits (please check our website https://actiflow.com/wind-assessment-tool/ for the exact fees with and without subscription)
• 10 hours of free consultancy per year
• Results of all your wind assessments will stay available on our platform for as long as your account is active

The output mainly depends on the assessment method you select when defining a project

For now, you can choose between:

• NEN8100:2006, mainly used in the Netherlands and Belgium
• Lawson LDDC, a widely used version of the Lawson criteria

The standard output of a wind assessment according to NEN8100 consists of:

• Two pictures showing wind discomfort and wind danger as defined in the NEN8100 criteria. These images show the exceedance probability of a wind speed threshold of 5 m/s and 15 m/s respectively. The pictures also include a legend for interpretation.

Below the 2 main images, you will find a list of additional output files:

• A zip file containing all images for easy download
• A zip file with 3D data in .csv format for visualization of the results in other software packages
• Pictures of wind discomfort (exceedance probabilities) per wind direction (12 in total)
• Pictures of wind discomfort according to the activities as mentioned in NEN8100

The standard output of a wind assessment according to Lawson LDDC consists of:

• Two pictures showing wind discomfort and wind distress as defined in the Lawson LDDC criteria. The pictures also include a legend for interpretation.

Below the 2 main images, you will find a short list of additional output files:

• A zip file containing all images for easy download
• A zip file containing all images for easy download
• Pictures of wind discomfort: overview and zoomed in on the project building
• Pictures of wind distress: overview and zoomed in on the project building

• You pay with credits. After registration, you will be able to buy credits in our portal
• You can choose to buy credits for wind assessments or credits for our expert support
• After your online purchase, we send an invoice to the email address that we agreed upon during your onboarding call
• After buying credits, you can use them to request a wind assessment (or support)
• We only charge credits after delivering proper results. We will help you to make sure that you only pay for a result that is useful to you. Therefore, we do 2 manual checks during the assessment process:

  1.As soon as you request a new wind assessment, we will check your input to make sure it complies with the technical requirements of our tool. If not, we will get in touch with you, to explain you what should be corrected. We will then ask you to upload the corrected data again, without charging any credits.

  2.Before releasing any results to you, we check if the wind simulations are performed correctly and if the results look realistic. If not, we will make sure to rerun the wind simulations at our expense. In this case, we will let you know when you can expect your final results.

• Please note that we do not check if the information you provide us is realistic or correct. Therefore, we do not guarantee the correctness of the assessment results.

The Actiflow Wind Assessment Tool uses Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) to simulate the wind around your project building for 12 different wind directions.

Based on the 3D CAD models uploaded by the user, the tool automatically creates a circular domain centered around the project building, with a diameter of about 3 km.

In this domain, a computational mesh is constructed, consisting out of several millions of volume cells.

At the boundaries of the domain, boundary conditions are imposed:

• For the ground surface, the user is requested to select the most appropriate description of the surrounding terrain in 4 quadrants. Based on this information, we define a surface roughness
• At the sides of the domain, we impose an atmospherical boundary layer profile for the wind velocity

The 3D model, the mesh and the boundary conditions are then used to execute 12 CFD simulations (12 wind directions).

The CFD results are then combined with the local wind statistics to calculate exceedance probabilities according to the selected norm/guideline.

Finally, the results are visualized, and the resulting pictures can be downloaded by the user.

During the assessment process, we manually check your input to ensure that it complies with the technical requirements, and we also check the output, to make sure that the CFD simulations have ran successfully. If something goes wrong, we do not charge you any credits.

• The Actiflow wind assessment tool is developed to enable an easy and fast analysis of the wind climate around a new real estate development, in an early phase of the building design.
• We propose to use the tool to understand the impact of your building design on the local wind climate in the conceptual design phase, in which you determine the shape and orientation of the building volumes.
• Optionally, you can compare multiple conceptual design variants, and find out which variant has the best wind climate.
• By dealing with these wind effects at the start of your design process, you will avoid problems later and you can make sure the final wind climate around your building will comply with local norms and guidelines.
• As the technology behind the wind assessment tool is optimized for maximum speed, the tool cannot be used to prove final compliance with these norms and guidelines, e.g. as part of a planning or permit application (see FAQ Why can the results not be used for planning or permit applications?)

To ensure that our wind assessment tool is fast and easy to use, the tool has some limitations:

• The tool can only handle simple 3D building volumes, without façade details or any steps smaller than 1 meter. If you upload a more detailed model, the tool will automatically remove the details, or you will be contacted by us with instructions how to simplify your model
• No vegetation like trees or bushed can be included in the model.
• We do not allow for height differences in the terrain. The ground level is assumed to be completely flat.
• The tool does not take into account the statistical wind data of the exact location of your project. Instead, it uses the data of a large city nearby. When defining a project, you will be asked to select a city nearby. If your project is more than 50km away from any of the cities in our list, we ask you to contact us, so we can help you further.
• When defining a project, you will be asked to describe the terrain between 300m and 1500m away from your project, in 4 sectors: N-E, E-S, S-W and W-N. In more detailed studies, we would study the roughness of the surrounding terrain in 12 sectors, but this would make the input process more complex.

The limitations mentioned above will have an impact on the results of the wind assessment, but for the purpose of the tool (identifying and mitigating risks in an early phase of the development), the effect of the limitations will be relatively small. Risks of wind discomfort or wind distress will be identified in the right regions, which is exactly what you want to know in an early phase of a new development.

• The Actiflow wind assessment tool is specifically developed for fast and easy wind assessments in an early phase of the building design. To ensure that the tool is fast and easy to use, the tool has some limitations as mentioned in the FAQ “What are the limitations of this tool?”
• Although the results of the wind assessment tool are visualized as specified in commonly used norms and guidelines (like NEN8100 or Lawson LDDC), the technology and methods behind the tool do not fully comply with the quality criteria and/or best practice guidelines of these norms, due to the limitations mentioned above.
• As most authorities request wind assessments to be performed according to specific norms or guidelines (like NEN8100 or Lawson), the results of our tool cannot be used to prove compliance with these norms.
• However, besides the wind assessment tool, Actiflow is also offering services and studies that do comply with all norms and guidelines. These studies are less automated and a little more expensive, but please contact us (contact@actiflow.com) if you would like more information about these studies. And please make sure to mention if you already used the wind assessment tool for your project, because in that case, you are entitled to a discount.

• No, this tool is not an optimization tool
• Most of these parametric optimization tools have very limited capabilities to account for wind. The simulation of wind is quite complex and time consuming, which is problematic if you want to assess tens or hundreds of design variants
• Even if wind is part of a parametric design tool, the reliability of the results will be low.
• However, we still think that parametric optimization tools are very valuable tools for architects to make informed decisions, and to bring the amount of design variants down to a few.
• These few variants can then be assessed with more reliable tools like the wind assessment tool of Actiflow.
• Optionally, for these few variants, you could also consider to perform a more detailed assessment of the other building physics aspects, like shading or energy efficiency. Please contact us for more information (contact@actiflow.com).
• The different assessments of these few variants can then be compared and presented to the client.

• In principle, user accounts are personal. An account is linked to a personal email address, and we use that address to inform the user about purchases, progress of wind assessments, etc.
• If you or your company prefers to use the tool without subscription, all users can have their own user account. Without subscription, there is no disadvantage to having multiple accounts within 1 company.
• If you or your company would like to subscribe to our tool, then this subscription, and all advantages related to it, are linked to one account. In this case, if you have multiple users, we suggest to make a separate email address for our tool, which is then linked internally to all email addresses of the users. In this case, all users use the same account and can benefit from the subscription. Moreover, all users will be informed of any new purchases or assessments