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

• New & Renewable Energy
• /
• v.3 no.3
• /
• pp.54-62
• /
• 2007

The present paper describes the scale effect correction methods for scaled NREL Phase VI wind turbines by using CFD[computational fluid dynamics). For the corrections of wind turbine scale effect, various researches on the helicopter rotor scale effect were investigated and the feasibility study of the methods was performed to correct wind turbine scale effect. The present paper also introduces scale effect correction methods based on two dimensional lift slope. In order to test the present method, performance analyses of NREL Phase VI wind turbines under various scale conditions were carried out and new correction method was applied. Granting that the new correction method is valid only above Reynolds No. 100,000, it showed reasonable agreement between model and full scale wind turbines in the linear torque region.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
• /
• v.54 no.5
• /
• pp.891-908
• /
• 2015

For a systematic study on wind-induced vibration characteristics of large hyperbolic cooling towers with different feature sizes, the pressure measurement tests are finished on the rigid body models of three representative cooling towers with the height of 155 m, 177 m and 215 m respectively. Combining the refined frequency-domain algorithm of wind-induced responses, the wind-induced average response, resonant response, background response, coupling response and wind vibration coefficients of large cooling towers with different feature sizes are obtained. Based on the calculating results, the parametric analysis on wind-induced vibration of cooling towers is carried out, e.g. the feature sizes, damping ratio and the interference effect of surrounding buildings. The discussion shows that the increase of feature sizes makes wind-induced average response and fluctuating response larger correspondingly, and the proportion of resonant response also gradually increased, but it has little effect on the wind vibration coefficient. The increase of damping ratio makes resonant response and the wind vibration coefficient decreases obviously, which brings about no effect on average response and background response. The interference effect of surrounding buildings makes the fluctuating response and wind vibration coefficient increased significantly, furthermore, the increase ranges of resonant response is greater than background response.

• Wind and Structures
• /
• v.32 no.4
• /
• pp.293-308
• /
• 2021

For the past three decades a significant amount of research has been conducted on bridge flutter. Wind tunnel tests for a 2000 m class twin-box suspension bridge have revealed that a twin-box deck carrying 4 m tall 50% open area ratio wind screens at the deck edges achieved higher critical wind speeds for onset of flutter than a similar deck without wind screens. A result at odds with the well-known behavior for the mono-box deck. The wind tunnel tests also revealed that the critical flutter wind speed increased if the bridge deck assumed a nose-up twist relative to horizontal when exposed to high wind speeds - a phenomenon termed the "nose-up" effect. Static wind tunnel tests of this twin-box cross section revealed a positive moment coefficient at 0° angle of attack as well as a positive moment slope, ensuring that the elastically supported deck would always meet the mean wind flow at ever increasing mean angles of attack for increasing wind speeds. The aerodynamic action of the wind screens on the twin-box bridge girder is believed to create the observed nose-up aerodynamic moment at 0° angle of attack. The present paper reviews the findings of the wind tunnel tests with a view to gain physical insight into the "nose-up" effect and to establish a theoretical model based on numerical simulations allowing flutter predictions for the twin-box bridge girder.

• International Journal of Highway Engineering
• /
• v.17 no.4
• /
• pp.33-40
• /
• 2015

PURPOSES: Evaluation of the wind speed effect on the temperature drop of an asphalt mixture during construction, by using the transient heat transfer theory and dominant convective heat transfer coefficient model. METHODS: Finite difference method (FDM) is used to solve the transient heat transfer difference equation numerically for various wind speeds and initial temperature conditions. The Blasius convective heat transfer coefficient model is adapted to account for the effect of wind speed in the temperature predictions of the asphalt mixture, and the Beaufort number is used to select a reasonable wind speed for the analysis. As a function of time and depth, the temperature of the pavement structure is predicted and analyzed for the given initial conditions. RESULTS : The effect of wind speed on the temperature drop of asphalt mixture is found to be significant. It seems that wind speed is another parameter to be accounted for in the construction specifications for obtaining a better quality of the asphalt mixture. CONCLUSIONS: It is concluded that wind speed has a significant effect on the temperature drop of the asphalt layer. Although additional field observations have to be made to reflect the effect of wind speed on the construction specifications, it appears that wind speed is a dominant variable to be considered, in addition to the atmospheric temperature.

• Wind and Structures
• /
• v.13 no.3
• /
• pp.275-292
• /
• 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
• /
• v.34 no.4
• /
• pp.355-369
• /
• 2022

Section model test, as the most commonly used method to evaluate the aerostatic and aeroelastic performances of long-span bridges, may be carried out under different conditions of incoming wind speed, geometric scale and wind tunnel facilities, which may lead to potential Reynolds number (Re) effect, model scaling effect and wind tunnel scale effect, respectively. The Re effect and scale effect on aerostatic force coefficients and aeroelastic characteristics of streamlined bridge decks were investigated via 1:100 and 1:60 scale section model tests. The influence of auxiliary facilities was further investigated by comparative tests between a bare deck section and the deck section with auxiliary facilities. The force measurement results over a Re region from about 1×10⁵ to 4×10⁵ indicate that the drag coefficients of both deck sections show obvious Re effect, while the pitching moment coefficients have weak Re dependence. The lift coefficients of the smaller scale models have more significant Re effect. Comparative tests of different scale models under the same Re number indicate that the static force coefficients have obvious scale effect, which is even more prominent than the Re effect. Additionally, the scale effect induced by lower model length to wind tunnel height ratio may produce static force coefficients with smaller absolute values, which may be less conservative for structural design. The results with respect to flutter stability indicate that the aerodynamic-damping-related flutter derivatives 𝘈^*₂ and 𝐴^*₁𝐻^*₃ have opposite scale effect, which makes the overall scale effect on critical flutter wind speed greatly weakened. The most significant scale effect on critical flutter wind speed occurs at +3° wind angle of attack, which makes the small-scale section models give conservative predictions.

• Journal of Environmental Science International
• /
• v.12 no.6
• /
• pp.605-613
• /
• 2003

In order to make use of the protection effect against wind by the vegetation, it examined whether it should make what vegetation form and arrangement using the 2-dimensional non-hydrostatic model. When the foliage shielding factor increases, it becomes hard to take in protection effect against wind in a residential section. When it makes height of vegetation high, it becomes hard to take in protection effect against wind with height. In the comparison in the case where vegetation high is gradually made low toward wind-stream from a vegetation, and the case of making it low gradually, although former tends to receive the protection effect against wind by the vegetation, attenuation of wind velicity becomes large. In the comparison in the case where foliage shielding factor and distribution of density of leaf are gathered gradually toward wind-stream from a vegetation. It has been understood to evaluate to height the influence that the vegetation multi-layer model by which the heat revenue and expenditure in the direction of the vegetation height is considered is used, and to characterize the vegetation group by the parameter setting.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
• /
• v.56 no.6
• /
• pp.1021-1040
• /
• 2015

An effective method to calculate aerodynamic loads and aeroelastic responses of large wind turbine tower-blade coupled structures in yaw condition is proposed. By a case study on a 5 MW large wind turbine, the finite element model of the wind turbine tower-blade coupled structure is established to obtain the modal information. The harmonic superposition method and modified blade-element momentum theory are used to calculate aerodynamic loads in yaw condition, in which the wind shear, tower shadow, tower-blade modal and aerodynamic interactions, and rotational effects are fully taken into account. The mode superposition method is used to calculate kinetic equation of wind turbine tower-blade coupled structure in time domain. The induced velocity and dynamic loads are updated through iterative loop, and the aeroelastic responses of large wind turbine tower-blade coupled system are then obtained. For completeness, the yaw effect and aeroelastic effect on aerodynamic loads and wind-induced responses are discussed in detail based on the calculating results.

• Wind and Structures
• /
• v.17 no.1
• /
• pp.69-85
• /
• 2013

With the sustainability movement, vegetated building envelopes are gaining more popularity. This requires special wind effect investigations, both from sustainability and resiliency perspectives. The current paper focuses on wind load estimation on small- and full-scale trees used as part of green roofs and balconies. Small-scale wind load assessment was carried out using a wind tunnel testing in a global-effect study to understand the interference effects from surrounding structures. Full-scale trees were investigated at a large open-jet facility in a local-effect study to account for the wind-tree interaction. The effect of Reynolds number combined with shape change on the overall loads measured at the base of the trees (near the roots) has been investigated by testing at different model-scales and wind speeds. In addition, high-speed tests were conducted to examine the security of the trees in soil and to assess the effectiveness of a proposed structural mitigation system. Results of the current research show that at relatively high wind speeds the load coefficients tend to be reduced, limiting the wind loads on trees. No resonance or vortex shedding was visually observed.