• Wind and Structures
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• v.29 no.4
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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.

• Wind and Structures
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• v.31 no.6
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• pp.483-493
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• 2020

Large cylindrical floating-roof tanks, constructed as oil containers, are usually distributed regularly in open area and easily exposed to severe wind loads. However, wind pressures around these grouped squat tanks appear to have not been clearly given in design codes or thoroughly studied in existing researches. This paper conducts a detailed investigation on wind loads on the external wall of a four-tank group in square arrangement. To achieve that, wind tunnel tests are carried out on both empty and full tank groups, considering various wind angles and spacing. Results show that 3 regions in elevation can be identified on the tank shell according to the circumferential wind pressure distribution. The upper 2 regions cover a relatively small portion of the shell where excessive negative pressures are spotted, setting an alarm to the design of the top angle and stiffening rings. By comparing results on grouped tanks to those on an isolated tank, grouping effects concerning wind angle, tank position in group and spacing are discussed. Deviations on pressure distributions that will compromise structural safety are outlined, including the increase of negative pressures, the shift of maximum pressure locations as well as the change of positive pressure range. And, several potentially unfavourable wind pressure distributions are selected for further analyses.

• Wind and Structures
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• v.29 no.6
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• pp.471-488
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• 2019

Wind pressure is a critical argument for the wind-resistant design of structures. The attempt, however, to explore the wind pressure field on buildings still encounters challenges though a large body of researches utilizing wind tunnel tests and wind field simulations were carried out, due to the difficulty in logical treatments on the scale effect and the modeling error. The full-scale measurement has not yet received sufficient attention. By performing a field measurement, the present paper systematically addresses wind pressures on the rectangular attic of a double-tower building. The spatial and temporal correlations among wind speed and wind pressures at measured points are discussed. In order to better understand the wind pressure distribution on the attic facades and its relationship against the approaching flow, a full-scale CFD simulation on the similar rectangular attic is conducted as well. Comparative studies between wind pressure coefficients and those provided in wind-load codes are carried out. It is revealed that in the case of wind attack angle being zero, the wind pressure coefficient of the cross-wind facades exposes remarkable variations along both horizontal and vertical directions; while the wind pressure coefficient of the windward facade remains stable along horizontal direction but exposes remarkable variations along vertical direction. The pattern of wind pressure coefficients, however, is not properly described in the existing wind-load codes.

• Journal of Environmental Science International
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• v.27 no.6
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• pp.359-369
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• 2018

A model has been developed to predict natural ventilation in a single zone building with large openings. This study first presents pressure-based equations on natural ventilation, that include the combined effect of wind and thermal buoyancy. Moreover, the concept of neutral pressure level(NPL) is introduced to consider the two-way flow through a large opening. The total pressure differences across the opening and the NPL are calculated, and nonlinear equations are solved to find the zonal pressure to satisfy mass conservation. For this analysis, an iterative technique of successively approximating the zonal pressure is used. The results of applying this study model to several simple cases are as follows. When there is no wind and only the stack effect is caused, a one-way flow occurs in both the top and bottom openings in the case of two openings of equal-area, and a one-way flow occurs in the top opening; however, a two-way flow occurs in the bottom opening in the case of two openings of unequal-area. When there is a wind effect, regardless of whether the outside air temperature is lower or higher than the indoor air temperature, air flows into the room through the bottom opening and out of the room through the top opening. As the wind velocity increases, the wind effect appears to be more influential than the stack effect owing to the temperature difference.

• Wind and Structures
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• v.19 no.4
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• pp.443-465
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• 2014

Hyperbolic thin-shell cooling towers have complicated vibration modes, and are very sensitive to the effects of group towers and wind-induced vibrations. Traditional aero-elastic models of cooling towers are usually designed based on the method of stiffness simulation by continuous medium thin shell materials. However, the method has some shortages in actual engineering applications, so the so-called "equivalent beam-net design method" of aero-elastic models of cooling towers is proposed in the paper and an aero-elastic model with a proportion of 1: 200 based on the method above with integrated pressure measurements and vibration measurements has been designed and carried out in TJ-3 wind tunnel of Tongji university. According to the wind tunnel test, this paper discusses the impacts of self-excited force effect on the surface wind pressure of a large-scale cooling tower and the results show that the impact of self-excited force on the distribution characteristics of average surface wind pressure is very small, but the impact on the form of distribution and numerical value of fluctuating wind pressure is relatively large. Combing with the Complete Quadratic Combination method (hereafter referred to as CQC method), the paper further studies the numerical sizes and distribution characteristics of background components, resonant components, cross-term components and total fluctuating wind-induced vibration responses of some typical nodes which indicate that the resonance response is dominant in the fluctuating wind-induced vibration response and cross-term components are not negligible for wind-induced vibration responses of super-large cooling towers.

• Wind and Structures
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• v.30 no.3
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• pp.299-316
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• 2020

Based on wind tunnel tests, this paper investigates the aerodynamic behavior of a large span canopy roof with elliptical plan and hyperbolic paraboloid shape. The statistics of pressure coefficients and the peak factor distributions are calculated for the top and bottom faces of the roof, and the Gaussian or non-Gaussian characteristics of the pressure time-histories in different areas of the roof are discussed. The cross-correlation of pressures at different positions on the roof, and between the top and bottom faces is also investigated. Combination factors are also evaluated to take into account the extreme values of net loads, relevant to the structural design of canopies.

• Journal of Bio-Environment Control
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• v.23 no.4
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• pp.269-280
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• 2014

To cope with increasing of vegetables and flowers consumptions, horticulture facilities have been modernized. Korea government recently announced construction plan of new greenhouse complex at reclaimed land. However wind characteristics of reclaimed land is totally different from those of inland, wind pressure on greenhouse built in reclaimed land should be carefully evaluated to secure structural safety on the greenhouse. In this study, as a first step, wind pressure coefficient and local wind pressure coefficient on even-span greenhouse were measured using wind tunnel test. ESDU was adopted to realize wind characteristics of reclaimed land such as wind and turbulence profiles. From the wind tunnel test, when wind direction was 0 degree, it was concluded that KBC2009 standard underestimated scale of wind pressure coefficients at roof area of greenhouse whereas NEN-EN2002 standard underestimated those at every surface of greenhouse. When wind direction was 90 degree, both standards did not well reflect the characteristics of wind pressure distribution. From the analysis of local wind pressure coefficients according to wind direction conditions, design of covering, glazing bar of greenhouse where large effects of the local wind pressure were estimated should be well established. Wind pressure coefficients and local wind pressure coefficients according to parts of the greenhouse were finally suggested and these results could be practically used for suggesting new design standards of greenhouse.

• Wind and Structures
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• v.22 no.2
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• pp.133-160
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• 2016

Hurricanes are among the most costly natural hazards to impact buildings in coastal regions. Building roofs are designed using the wind load provisions of building codes and standards and, in the case of large buildings, wind tunnel tests. Wind permeable roof claddings like roof pavers are not well dealt with in many existing building codes and standards. The objective of this paper is to develop simple guidance in code format for design of loose-laid roof pavers. Large-scale experiments were performed to investigate the wind loading on concrete roof pavers on the flat roof of a low-rise building in Wall of Wind, a large-scale hurricane testing facility at Florida International University. They included wind blow-off tests and pressure measurements on the top and bottom surfaces of pavers. Based on the experimental results simplified guidelines are developed for design of loose-laid roof pavers against wind uplift. The guidelines are formatted so that use can be made of the existing information in codes and standards such as American Society of Civil Engineering (ASCE) 7-10 standard's pressure coefficients for components and cladding. The effects of the pavers' edge-gap to spacer height ratio and parapet height to building height ratio are included in the guidelines as adjustment factors.

• Wind and Structures
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• v.21 no.5
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• pp.489-503
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• 2015

This paper surveys and complements contributions by the National Institute of Standards and Technology to techniques ensuring that the wind tunnel procedure for the design of high-rise structures is based on sound methods and allows unambiguous inter-laboratory comparisons. Developments that enabled substantial advances in these techniques include: Instrumentation for simultaneously measuring pressures at multiple taps; time-domain analysis methods for estimating directional dynamic effects; creation of large simulated extreme directional wind speed data sets; non-parametric methods for estimating mean recurrence intervals (MRIs) of Demand-to-Capacity Indexes (DCIs); and member sizing based on peak DCIs with specified MRIs. To implement these advances changes are needed in the traditional division of tasks between wind and structural engineers. Wind engineers should provide large sets of directional wind speeds, pressure coefficient time series, and estimates of uncertainties in wind speeds and pressure coefficients. Structural engineers should perform the dynamic analyses, estimates of MRIs of wind effects, sensitivity studies, and iterative sizing of structural members. The procedure is transparent, eliminates guesswork inherent in frequency domain methods and due to the lack of pressure measurements, and enables structural engineers to be in full control of the structural design for wind.

• Wind and Structures
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.123-133
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• 2013

Pressure field and velocity profiles in a thunderstorm downburst are significantly different from that of an atmospheric boundary layer wind. A model of the pressure field in a downburst is presented in accordance with the experimental and numerical results. Large eddy simulation method is employed to investigate transient pressure field on impingement ground of a downburst. In addition, velocity profiles of the downburst are studied, and good agreement is achieved between the present results and the data obtained from empirical models.