• Wind and Structures
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• 제12권1호
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• pp.77-88
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• 2009

A pulsed impinging jet is used to simulate the gust front of a thunderstorm downburst. This work concentrates on investigating the peak transient loading conditions on a 30 mm cubic model submerged in the simulated downburst flow. The outflow induced pressures are recorded and compared to those from boundary layer and steady wall jet flow. Given that peak winds associated with downburst events are often located in the transient frontal region, the importance of using a non-stationary modelling technique for assessing peak downburst wind loads is highlighted with comparisons.

• Wind and Structures
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• 제10권5호
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• pp.437-462
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• 2007

A non-translating, long duration thunderstorm downburst has been simulated experimentally and numerically by modelling a spatially stationary steady flow impinging air jet. Velocity profiles were shown to compare well with an upper-bound of velocity measurements reported for full-scale microbursts. Velocity speed-up over a range of topographic features in simulated downburst flow was also tested with comparisons made to previous work in a similar flow, and also boundary layer wind tunnel experiments. It was found that the amplification measured above the crest of topographic features in simulated downburst flow was up to 35% less than that observed in boundary layer flow for all shapes tested. From the computational standpoint we conclude that the Shear Stress Transport (SST) model performs the best from amongst a range of eddy-viscosity and second moment closures tested for modelling the impinging jet flow.

• Wind and Structures
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• 제30권3호
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• pp.231-243
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• 2020

Downbursts are acknowledged for being a major loading hazard for horizontally-extending structures like transmission line systems. With these structures being inherently flexible, it is important to characterize the turbulence associated with the wind flow of downburst events being essential to quantify dynamic excitations on structures. Accordingly, the current study numerically characterizes the downburst wind field of open terrain simulated at the Wind Engineering, Energy and Environment (WindEEE) dome testing facility at The University of Western Ontario in Canada through a high-resolution large eddy simulation (LES). The study validates the numerical simulation considering both the mean and the turbulent components of the flow. It then provides a detailed visual description of the flow at WindEEE through the capabilities enabled by LES to identify the key factors affecting the flow. The study also presents the spatial distribution of turbulence intensities and length scales computed from the numerical model and compares them with previous values reported in the literature. The comparison shows the ability of the downburst simulated at WindEEE to reproduce turbulence characteristics similar to those reported from field measurements. The study also indicates that downburst turbulence is well-correlated circumferentially which imposes high correlated loads on horizontally-distributed structures such as transmission lines.

• Wind and Structures
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• 제21권2호
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• pp.241-272
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• 2015

In the current study, dynamic and quasi-static analyses were performed to investigate the response of multiple-spanned and single-spanned transmission line conductors under both downburst and synoptic winds considering different wind velocities and different length spans. Two critical downburst configurations, recommended in the literature and expected to cause maximum conductor reactions, were considered in the analyses. The objective of the study was to assess the importance of including the dynamic effect when predicting the conductor's reactions on the towers. This was achieved by calculating the mean, the background and the resonant reaction components, and evaluating the contribution of the resonant component to the peak reaction. The results show that the maximum contribution of the resonant component is generally low (in the order of 6%) for the multiple-spanned system at different wind velocities for both downburst and synoptic winds. For the single-spanned system, the result show a relatively high maximum contribution (in the order of 16%) at low wind velocity and a low maximum contribution (in the order of 6%) at high wind velocity for both downburst and synoptic winds. Such contributions may justify the usage of the quasi-static approach for analyzing transmission line conductors subjected to the high wind velocities typically used for the line design.

• Wind and Structures
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• 제22권1호
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• pp.65-87
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• 2016

The wind velocity profile over the height of a structure in high intensity wind (HIW) events, such as downbursts, differs from that associated with atmospheric boundary layer (ABL) winds. Current design codes for lattice transmission structures contain only limited advice on the treatment of HIW effects, and structural design is carried out using wind load profiles and response factors derived for ABL winds. The present study assesses the load-deformation curve (capacity curve) of a transmission tower under modeled downburst wind loading, and compares it with that obtained for an ABL wind loading profile. The analysis considers nonlinear inelastic response under simulated downburst wind fields. The capacity curve is represented using the relationship between the base shear and the maximum tip displacement. The results indicate that the capacity curve remains relatively consistent between different downburst scenarios and an ABL loading profile. The use of the capacity curve avoids the difficulty associated with defining a reference wind speed and corresponding wind profile that are adequate and applicable for downburst and ABL winds, thereby allowing a direct comparison of response under synoptic and downburst events. Uncertainty propagation analysis is carried out to evaluate the tower capacity by considering the uncertainty in material properties and geometric variables. The results indicated the coefficient of variation of the tower capacity is small compared to those associated with extreme wind speeds.

• Wind and Structures
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• 제10권5호
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• pp.481-494
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• 2007

Downbursts are transient phenomena that produce wind profiles that are distinctly different from synoptic boundary layers. Wind field data from Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) simulations of isolated downburst-like impinging jets, are used to investigate structural loads of tall buildings due to these high intensity winds. The base shear forces and base moments of tall buildings of heights between 120 and 250 m produced by downburst winds of various scales are compared with the forces from the equivalent boundary layer gust winds, with matched 10-metre wind velocity. The wind profiles are mainly functions of the size of the downburst and the radial distance from the centre of the storm. Wind forces due to various downburst profiles are investigated by placing the building at different locations relative to the storm center as well as varying the size of the downburst. Overall it is found that downbursts larger than approx. 2,000 m in diameter might produce governing design wind loads above those from corresponding boundary layer winds for tall buildings.

• Wind and Structures
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• 제27권2호
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• pp.71-88
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• 2018

At the University of Western Ontario (UWO), numerical tools represented in semi-closed form solution for the conductors and finite element modeling of the lattice tower were developed and utilized significantly to assess the behavior of transmission lines under downburst wind fields. Although these tools were validated against other finite element analyses, it is essential to validate the findings of those tools using experimental data. This paper reports the first aeroelastic test for a multi-span transmission line under simulated downburst. The test has been conducted at the three-dimensional wind testing facility, the WindEEE dome, located at the UWO. The experiment considers various downburst locations with respect to the transmission line system. Responses obtained from the experiment are analyzed in the current study to identify the critical downburst locations causing maximum internal forces in the structure (i.e., potential failure modes), which are compared with the failure modes obtained from the numerical tools. In addition, a quantitative comparison between the measured critical responses obtained from the experiment with critical responses obtained from the numerical tools is also conducted. The study shows a very good agreement between the critical configurations of the downburst obtained from the experiment compared to those predicted previously by different numerical studies. In addition, the structural responses obtained from the experiment and those obtained from the numerical tools are in a good agreement where a maximum difference of 16% is found for the mean responses and 25% for the peak responses.

• Wind and Structures
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• 제12권2호
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• pp.133-149
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• 2009

This paper outlines the results of a physical simulation (at a 1:700 - 1:1000 geometric scale) of a thunderstorm downburst. Three different methods are examined in order to generate the time dependent nature of a downburst: directly controlling the fans and via two different types of opening apertures. Similarities are shown to exist between each method, although the results obtained from one approach are favoured since they appear to be independent of the downdraft velocity. Significant run-to-run variations between each experiment are discovered and in general it is found beneficial to interpret the results in terms of 10 run ensemble averages. An attempt to simulate a translating downburst is also undertaken and the results are shown to compare favourably with full-scale data.

• Wind and Structures
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• 제27권2호
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• pp.89-100
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• 2018

3D simulations based on an impinging jet were carried out to investigate the flow field of a steady downburst and its effects on a high-rise building by applying the SST k-${\omega}$ turbulence model. The vertical profile of radial wind speed obtained from the simulation was compared with experimental data and empirical models in order to validate the accuracy of the present numerical method. Then wind profiles and the influence of jet velocity and jet height were investigated. Focusing on a high-rise building, the flow structures around the building, pressure distributions on the building surfaces and aerodynamic forces were analyzed in order to enhance the understanding of wind load characteristics on a high-rise building immersed in a downburst.

• Wind and Structures
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• 제29권5호
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• pp.339-359
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• 2019

Pre-stressed concrete poles are among the supporting systems used to support transmission lines. It is essential to protect transmission line systems from harsh environmental attacks such as downburst wind events. Typically, these poles are designed to resist synoptic wind loading as current codes do not address high wind events in the form of downbursts. In the current study, the behavior of guyed pre-stressed concrete Transmission lines is studied under downburst loads. To the best of the authors' knowledge, this study is the first investigation to assess the behaviour of guyed pre-stressed concrete poles under downburst events. Due to the localized nature of those events, identifying the critical locations and parameters leading to peak forces on the poles is a challenging task. To overcome this challenge, an in-house built numerical model is developed incorporating the following: (1) a three-dimensional downburst wind field previously developed and validated using computational fluid dynamics simulations; (2) a computationally efficient analytical technique previously developed and validated to predict the non-linear behaviour of the conductors including the effects of the pretension force, sagging, insulator's stiffness and the non-uniform distribution of wind loads, and (3) a non-linear finite element model utilized to simulate the structural behaviour of the guyed pre-stressed concrete pole considering material nonlinearity. A parametric study is conducted by varying the downbursts locations relative to the guyed pole while considering three different span values. The results of this parametric study are utilized to identify critical downburst configurations leading to peak straining actions on the pole and the guys. This is followed by comparing the obtained critical load cases to new load cases proposed to ASCE-74 loading committee. A non-linear failure analysis is then conducted for the three considered guyed pre-stressed concrete transmission line systems to determine the downburst jet velocity at which the pole systems fail.