• Wind and Structures
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• v.31 no.2
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• pp.165-183
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• 2020

The first step of performance-based design for transmission lines is the determination of wind fields as well as wind loads, which are largely depending on local wind climate and the surrounding terrain. Wind fields in a mountainous area are very different with that in a flat terrain. This paper firstly investigated both mean and fluctuating wind characteristics of a typical mountainous wind field by wind tunnel tests and computational fluid dynamics (CFD). The speedup effects of mean wind and specific turbulence properties, i.e., turbulence intensity, power spectral density (PSD) and coherence function, are highlighted. Then a hybrid simulation framework for generating three dimensional (3D) wind velocity field in the mountainous area was proposed by combining the CFD and proper orthogonal decomposition (POD) method given the properties of the target turbulence field. Finally, a practical 220 kV transmission line was employed to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed wind field generation framework and its role in the performance-based design. It was found that the terrain-induce turbulence effects dominate the performance-based structural design of transmission lines running through the mountainous area.

• Wind and Structures
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• v.35 no.4
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• pp.229-242
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• 2022

Wind tunnel test is often adopted to assess the site-specific wind characteristics for the design of bridges as suggested by current design standards. To investigate the wind characteristics of flat and mountainous terrain, two topographic models are tested in a boundary layer wind tunnel. The wind characteristics, including the vertical and horizontal mean wind speed distributions, the turbulence intensity, and the wind power spectra, are presented. They are investigated intensively in present study with the discussions on the effect of wind direction and the effect of topography. It is indicated that for flat terrain, the wind direction has negligible effect on the wind characteristics, however, the assumption of a homogenous wind field for the mountainous terrain is not applicable. Further, the non-homogeneous wind field can be defined based on a proposed approach if the wind tunnel test or on-site measurement is performed. The calculated turbulence intensities and wind power spectra by using the measured wind speeds are also given. It is shown that for the mountainous terrain, engineers should take into account the variability of the wind characteristics for design considerations.

• Wind and Structures
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• v.13 no.3
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• pp.275-292
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• 2010

Wind tunnel experiments were conducted to investigate the wind characteristics in the mountainous valley terrain with 4 simplified valley models and a 1:500 scale model of an existing valley terrain in the simulated atmospheric neutral boundary layer model. Measurements were focused on the mean wind flow and longitudinal turbulence intensity. The relationship between hillside slopes and the velocity speed-up effect were studied. By comparing the preliminary results obtained from the simplified valley model tests and the existing terrain model test, some fundamental information was obtained. The measured results indicate that it is inappropriate to describe the mean wind velocity profiles by a power law using the same roughness exponent along the span wise direction in the mountainous valley terrain. The speed-up effect and the significant change in wind direction of the mean flow were observed, which provide the information necessary for determining the design wind speed such as for a long-span bridge across the valley. The longitudinal turbulence intensity near the ground level is reduced due to the speed-up effect of the valley terrain. However, the local topographic features of a more complicated valley terrain may cause significant perturbation to the general wind field characteristics in the valley.

• Wind and Structures
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• v.30 no.6
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• pp.649-662
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• 2020

The existence of a dam has potential effects on the surrounding wind environment especially when it is located in mountainous areas. In this situation, the long-span bridge over the reservoir can easily be exposed to non-uniform incoming flows, affecting its wind-resistance performance. This paper presents a study on the aerostatic stability of such a bridge. Wind tunnel tests were first carried out to investigate the wind environment above a mountainous reservoir. The results show that the angle of attack and the wind speed along the bridge axis show obvious non-uniform characteristics, which is related to the inflow direction. When winds come from the south where the river is winding, the angle of attack varies along the span direction significantly. The finite element model for the bridge was established using ANSYS software, and effects of non-uniform wind loads on the aerostatic stability were computed. Non-uniform angle of attack and wind speed are unfavorable to the aerostatic stability of the bridge, especially the former. When the combined action of non-uniform angle of attack and wind speed is considered, the critical wind speed of aerostatic instability is further reduced. Moreover, the aerostatic stability of the bridge is closely related to the dam height.

• Journal of Korean Society for Geospatial Information Science
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.13-19
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• 2014

To develop a wind farm in a mountainous terrain like Korea, it is generally more advantageous to install wind turbines along a mountain ridge where has relatively better wind resource because that is open in all directions and free from shielding by the surrounding topography. In this study, the SRTM (Shuttle Radar Topography Mission) v4.1 3 arc-second resolution digital elevation database and the geomorphometric characterization software LandSerf v2.3 are used to extract ridge lines for assessing a wind farm siting in mountainous terrain. The effectiveness of wind farm siting along a ridge line is confirmed that the most of wind turbines in the Gangwon, Taegisan, and Maebongsan wind farms in Korea's mountainous terrain are placed along the primary and secondary ridge lines where wind resource is relatively outstanding.

• Wind and Structures
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• v.23 no.3
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• pp.191-209
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• 2016

Wind tunnel tests of a 1/2200-scale mountainous terrain model have been carried out to investigate local wind characteristics at a bridge location in southeast Tibet, China. Flows at five key locations on the bridge at deck level were measured for 26 directions. It was observed that wind characteristics (including mean wind velocity and overall turbulence intensity) vary significantly depending on the approaching wind direction and measurement position. The wind inclination angle measured in the study fluctuated between $-18^{\circ}$ and $+16^{\circ}$ and the ratio of mean wind velocity to reference wind velocity was small when the wind inclination angles were large, especially for positive wind inclination angles. The design standard wind speed and the minimum critical wind speed for flutter rely on the wind inclination angle and should be determined from the results of such tests. The variation of wind speed with wind inclination angles should be of the asymmetry step type. The turbulence characteristics of the wind were found to be similar to real atmospheric flows.

• 한국전산유체공학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2010.05a
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• pp.493-495
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• 2010

A three-dimensional flow simulation is performed to investigate the flow field in the ski resort on complex terrain. The present paper aims to study the wind effects of mountainous terrain on the gondola safety. Strong wind happens in the ski resort on the mountain by complex terrain and it causes the dangerous accident of gondola. A digital map around the ski resort area is used to model the actual complex terrain for a 3-D analysis domain. Wind direction and speed to be used as a boundary condition are taken from local meteorological reports. The numerical results show details of the velocity distribution around a ski resort. From the results, we can suggest the modification of the installation of gondola for the safety due to strong wind.

• Wind and Structures
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• v.7 no.5
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• pp.345-357
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• 2004

In the 1990s, four strong typhoons hit the Kyushu area of Japan and inflicted severe damage on power transmission facilities, houses, and so on. Maximum gust speeds exceeding 60 m/s were recorded in central Kyushu. Although the wind speeds were very high, the gust factors were over 2.0. No meteorological stations are located in mountainous areas, creating a deficiency of meteorological station data in the area where the towers were damaged. Since 1995 the authors have operated a network for wind measurement, NeWMeK, that measures wind speed and direction, covering these mountainous areas, segmenting the Kyushu area into high density arrays. Maximum gusts exceeding 70 m/s were measured at several NeWMeK sites when Typhoon Bart (1999) approached. The gust factors varied widely in southerly winds. The mean wind speeds increased due to effects of the local terrain, thus further increasing gust speeds.

• Journal of the Korean Geographical Society
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• v.43 no.6
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• pp.843-857
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• 2008

This study analyzed distribution of natural disaster and trend of related climatic elements in mountainous region of Gangwon-do. In mountainous region of Gangwon-do, there have been 27 natural disasters of which heavy rainfall have the leading cause for the last 5 years(16 times in 2003-2007). It has been 9 natural disasters in Jinbu-myeon Pyeongchang-gun, the most frequent area. The mountainous region has been larger natural damage than its surrounding regions and there has been more damage at higher altitudes. While the heavy rainfall have caused damage over the northwest of mountains, most typhoons have damaged southern part of mountains. Most mountainous region suffers from strong wind but damage by snow is small. In mountainous region of Gangwon-do, annual precipitation, intensity of precipitation and heavy rainfall days have been increasing since 2000 and this tendency is significant in its intensity. However, annual snowfall, snowfall days and heavy snowfall days have been clearly decreasing since 2000. In case heavy rainfall accompanies strong wind, the damages are larger in mountainous region of Gangwon-do. Therefore it is important to be prepared for heavy rainfall and strong wind.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.63 no.4
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• pp.509-519
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• 2017

Wind field in mountainous regions demonstrates unique distribution characteristic as compared with the wind field of the flat area, wind load and wind effect are the key considerations in structural design of television towers situated in mountainous regions. The television tower to be constructed is located at the top of Xiushan Mountain in Nanjing, China. In order to investigate the impact of terrain factors of hilltops on wind loads, firstly a wind tunnel test was performed for the mountainous area within 800m from the television tower. Then the tower basal forces such as bending moments and shear strength were obtained based on high frequency force balance (HFFB) test. Based on the experiments, the improved method for determining the load combinations was applied to extract the response distribution patterns of foundation internal force and peak acceleration of the tower top, then the equivalent static wind loads were computed under different wind angles, load conditions and equivalent goals. The impact of terrain factors, damping ratio and equivalent goals on the wind load distribution of a television tower was discussed. Finally the equivalent static wind loads of the television tower under the 5 most adverse wind angles and 5 most adverse load conditions were computed. The experimental method, computations and research findings provide important references for the anti-wind design of high-rise structure built on hilltops.