• Wind and Structures
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• 제29권4호
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• pp.235-246
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• 2019

Wind loading is one of important loadings that should be considered in the design of large hyperbolic natural-draught cooling towers. Both external and internal surfaces of cooling tower are under the action of wind loading for cooling circulating water. In the previous studies, the wind loads on the external surface attracted concernedly attention, while the study on the internal surface was relatively ware. In the present study, the wind pressure on the internal surface of a 220 m high cooling tower is measured through wind tunnel testing, and the effect of ventilation rate of the packing layer on internal pressure is a major concern. The characteristics of internal wind pressure distribution and its effect on wind-induced responses calculated by finite element method are investigated. The results indicate that the wind loading on internal surface of the cooling tower behaves remarkable three-dimensional effect, and the pressure coefficient varies along both of height and circumferential directions. The non-uniformity is particularly strong during the construction stage. Analysis results of the effect of internal pressure on wind-induced responses show that the size and distribution characteristics of internal pressure will have some influence on wind-induced response, however, the outer pressure plays a dominant role in the wind-induced response of cooling tower, and the contribution of internal pressure to the response is small.

• 한국공간구조학회논문집
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• 제13권1호
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• pp.51-57
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• 2013

There can be diverse causes in the destruction of a large space structure by strong wind such as characteristics of construction materials and changes in internal and external wind pressure of the structure. To evaluate the wind pressure of roof against the large space structure, wind pressure experiment is performed. However, in this wind pressure experiment, peak internal pressure coefficient is set according to the opening of the roof in Korea wind code. In this article, it was tried to identify the change of internal pressure coefficient and the characteristics of wind pressure coefficient acting on the roof by two kinds of opening on the side of the structure with Hyperbolic Paraboloid Spatial Structures roof. When analyzing internal pressure coefficient according to roof shape, it was found that minimum (52%) and maximum (30%~80%) overestimation was made comparing to partial opening type proposed in the current wind load. It is judged that evaluation according to the opening rate of the structure should be made to evaluate the internal pressure coefficient according to load.

• Wind and Structures
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• 제32권2호
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• pp.105-114
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• 2021

This paper describes a wind tunnel test on a 1:25 scale model of TTU building with several adjustable openings in order to comprehensively study the characteristics of fluctuating internal pressures, especially the phenomenon of the increase in fluctuating internal pressures induced by tangential flow over building openings and the mechanism causing that. The effects of several factors, such as wind angle, turbulence intensity, opening location, opening size, opening shape and background porosity on the fluctuating internal pressures at oblique wind angles are also described. It has been found that there is a large increase in the fluctuating internal pressures at certain oblique wind angles (typically around 60° to 80°). These fluctuations are greater than those produced by the flow normal to the opening when the turbulence intensity is low. It is demonstrated that the internal pressure resonances induced by the external pressure fluctuations emanating from flapping shear layers on the sidewall downstream of the windward corner are responsible for the increase in the fluctuating internal pressures. Furthermore, the test results show that apart from the opening shape, all the other factors influence the fluctuating internal pressures and the internal pressure resonances at oblique wind angles to varying degrees.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• 제70권4호
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• pp.479-497
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• 2019

In the current code design, the use of a uniform internal pressure coefficient of cooling towers as internal suction cannot reflect the 3D characteristics of flow field inside the tower body with different ventilation rate of shutters. Moreover, extreme weather such as heavy rain also has a direct impact on aerodynamic force on the internal surface and changes the turbulence effect of pulsating wind. In this study, the world's tallest cooling tower under construction, which stands 210m, is taken as the research object. The algorithm for two-way coupling between wind and rain is adopted. Simulation of wind field and raindrops is performed iteratively using continuous phase and discrete phase models, respectively, under the general principles of computational fluid dynamics (CFD). Firstly, the rule of influence of 9 combinations of wind speed and rainfall intensity on the volume of wind-driven rain, additional action force of raindrops and equivalent internal pressure coefficient of the tower body is analyzed. The combination of wind velocity and rainfall intensity that is most unfavorable to the cooling tower in terms of distribution of internal pressure coefficient is identified. On this basis, the wind/rain loads, distribution of aerodynamic force and working mechanism of internal pressures of the cooling tower under the most unfavorable working condition are compared between the four ventilation rates of shutters (0%, 15%, 30% and 100%). The results show that the amount of raindrops captured by the internal surface of the tower decreases as the wind velocity increases, and increases along with the rainfall intensity and ventilation rate of the shutters. The maximum value of rain-induced pressure coefficient is 0.013. The research findings lay the basis for determining the precise values of internal surface loads of cooling tower under extreme weather conditions.

• Wind and Structures
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• 제16권1호
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• pp.117-136
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• 2013

A field study of wind-induced internal pressures in a flexible and porous industrial warehouse with a single dominant opening, of various sizes for a range of moderate wind speeds and directions, is reported in this paper. Comparatively weak resonance of internal pressure for oblique windward opening situations, and hardly discernible at other wind directions, is attributed to the inherent leakage and flexibility in the envelope of the building in addition to the moderate wind speeds encountered during the tests. The measured internal pressures agree well with the theoretical predictions obtained by numerically simulating the analytical model of internal pressure for a porous and flexible building with a dominant opening. Ratios of the RMS and peak internal to opening external pressures obtained in the study are presented in a non-dimensional format along with other published full scale measurements and compared with the non-dimensional design equation proposed in recent literature.

• Wind and Structures
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• 제28권1호
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• pp.1-17
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• 2019

Internal ring beams are primary components of new ring-stiffened cooling towers. In this study, numerical simulation of the internal flow field of a cooling tower with three ring beams under wind-thermal coupling effect is performed. The studied cooling tower is a 220-m super-large hyperbolic indirect natural draft cooling tower that is under construction in China and will be the World's highest cooling tower, the influence of peripheral radiators in operating cooling tower is also considered. Based on the simulation, the three-dimensional effect and distribution pattern of the wind loads on inner surface of the cooling tower is summarized, the average wind pressure distributions on the inner surface before and after the addition of the ring beams are analyzed, and the influence pattern of ring beams on the internal pressure coefficient value is derived. The action mechanisms behind the air flows inside the tower are compared. In addition, the effects of internal ring beams on temperature field characteristics, turbulence kinetic energy distribution, and wind resistance are analyzed. Finally, the internal pressure coefficients are suggested for ring-stiffened cooling towers under wind-thermal coupling effect. The study shows that the influence of internal stiffening ring beams on the internal pressure and flow of cooling towers should not be ignored, and the wind-thermal coupling effect should also be considered in the numerical simulation of cooling tower flow fields. The primary conclusions presented in this paper offer references for determining the internal suction of such ring-stiffened cooling towers.

• Wind and Structures
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• 제21권1호
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• pp.1-23
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• 2015

Wind tunnel testing of a low-rise building with openings (holes) of different sizes and shapes on a roof corner is conducted to measure the internal and external pressures from the building model. Detailed analysis of the testing data is carried out to investigate the characteristics of the internal and external pressures of the building with different openings' configurations. Superimposition of the internal and external pressures makes the emergence of positive net pressures on the roof. The internal pressures demonstrate an overall uniform distribution. The probability density function (PDF) of the internal pressures is close to the Gaussian distribution. Compared with the PDF of the external pressures, the non-Gaussian characteristics of the net pressures weakened. The internal pressures exhibit strong correlation in frequency domain. There appear two humps in the spectra of the internal pressures, which correspond to the Helmholtz frequency and vortex shedding frequency, respectively. But, the peak for the vortex shedding frequency is offset for the net pressures. Furthermore, the internal pressure characteristics indirectly reflect that the length of the front edge enhances the development of the conical vortices.The objective of this study aims to further understanding of the characteristics of internal, external and net pressures for low-rise buildings in an effort to reduce wind damages to residential buildings.

• Wind and Structures
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• 제30권3호
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• pp.219-229
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• 2020

Net pressures on roofs and walls of buildings are dependent on the internal and external pressure fluctuations. The variation of internal and external pressures are influenced by the size and location of the openings. The correlation of external and internal pressure influences the net pressures acting on cladding on different parts of the roof and walls. The peak internal and peak external pressures do not occur simultaneously, therefore, a reduction can be applied to the peak internal and external pressures to obtain a peak net pressure for cladding design. A 1:200 scale wind tunnel model study was conducted to determine the correlations of external and internal pressures and effective reduction to net pressures (i.e., net pressure factors, F_C) for roof and wall cladding. The results show that external and internal pressures on the windward roof and wall edges are well correlated. The largest ${\mathcal{C}}_{{\check{p},net}$, highest correlation coefficient and the highest F_C are obtained for different wind directions within 90° ≤ θ ≤ 135°, where the large openings are on the windward wall. The study also gives net pressure factors F_C for areas on the roof and wall cladding for nominally sealed buildings and the buildings with a large windward wall opening. These factors indicate that a 5% to 10% reduction to the action combination factor, K_C specified in AS/NZS 1170.2(2011) is possible for some critical design scenarios.

• Wind and Structures
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• 제16권1호
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• pp.25-46
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• 2013

This paper presents a boundary-layer wind tunnel (BLWT) study on the effect of variable dominant openings on steady and transient responses of wind-induced internal pressure in a low-rise building. The paper presents a parametric study focusing on differences and similarities between transient and steady-state responses, the effects of size and locations of dominant openings and vent openings, and the effects of wind angle of attack. In addition, the necessity of internal volume correction during sudden breaching, i.e., a transient response experiment was investigated. A comparison of the BLWT data with ASCE 7-2010, as well as with limited large-scale data obtained at a 'Wall of Wind' facility, is presented.

• Wind and Structures
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• 제16권1호
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• pp.61-91
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• 2013

An analytical model of internal pressure response of a leaky and quasi-statically flexible building with a dominant opening is provided by including the effect of the envelope external pressure fluctuations on the roof, in addition to the fluctuating external pressure at the dominant opening. Wind tunnel experiments involving a flexible roof and different building porosities were carried out to validate the analytical predictions. While the effect of envelope flexibility is shown to lower the Helmholtz frequency of the building volume-opening combination, the lowering of the resonant peak in the internal and net roof pressure coefficient spectra is attributed to the increased damping in the system due to inherent background leakage and envelope flexibility. The extent of the damping effects of "skin" flexibility and background leakage in moderating the internal and net pressure response under high wind conditions is quantified using the linearized admittance functions developed. Analytical examples provided for different combinations of background leakage and envelope flexibility show that alleviation of internal and net pressure fluctuations due to these factors by as much as 40 and 15% respectively is possible compared to that for a nominally sealed rigid building of the same internal volume and opening size.