• Wind and Structures
• /
• v.19 no.5
• /
• pp.505-522
• /
• 2014

While effects of the atmospheric boundary layer flow on engineering infrastructure are more or less known, some local transient winds create difficulties for structures, traffic and human activities. Hence, further research is required to fully elucidate flow characteristics of some of those very unique local winds. In this study, important characteristics of observed vertical velocity profiles along the main wind direction for the gusty Bora wind blowing along the eastern Adriatic coast are presented. Commonly used empirical power-law and the logarithmic-law profiles are compared against unique 3-level high-frequency Bora measurements. The experimental data agree well with the power-law and logarithmic-law approximations. An interesting feature observed is a decrease in the power-law exponent and aerodynamic surface roughness length, and an increase in friction velocity with increasing Bora wind velocity. This indicates an urban-like velocity profile for smaller wind velocities and rural-like velocity profile for larger wind velocities, which is due to a stronger increase in absolute velocity at each of the heights observed as compared to the respective velocity gradient (difference in average velocity among two different heights). The trends observed are similar during both the day and night. The thermal stratification is near neutral due to a strong mechanical mixing. The differences in aerodynamic surface roughness length are negligible for different time averaging periods when using the median. For the friction velocity, the arithmetic mean proved to be independent of the time record length, while for the power-law exponent both the arithmetic mean and the median are not influenced by the time averaging period. Another issue is a large difference in aerodynamic surface roughness length when calculating using the arithmetic mean and the median. This indicates that the more robust median is a more suitable parameter to determine the aerodynamic surface roughness length than the arithmetic mean value. Variations in velocity profiles at the same site during different wind periods are interesting because, in the engineering community, it has been commonly accepted that the aerodynamic characteristics at a particular site remain the same during various wind regimes.

• Wind and Structures
• /
• v.24 no.6
• /
• pp.579-611
• /
• 2017

Bora is a strong, usually dry temporally and spatially transient wind that is common at the eastern Adriatic Coast and many other dynamically similar regions around the world. One of the Bora main characteristics is its gustiness, when wind velocities can reach up to five times the mean velocity. Bora often creates significant problems to traffic, structures and human life in general. In this study, Bora velocity and near-ground turbulence are studied using the results of three-level high-frequency Bora field measurements carried out on a meteorological tower near the city of Split, Croatia. These measurements are analyzed for a period from April 2010 until June 2011. This rather long period allows for making quite robust and reliable conclusions. The focus is on mean Bora velocity, turbulence intensity, Reynolds shear stress and turbulence length scale profiles, as well as on Bora velocity power spectra and thermal stratification. The results are compared with commonly used empirical laws and recommendations provided in the ESDU 85020 wind engineering standard to question its applicability to Bora. The obtained results report some interesting findings. In particular, the empirical power- and logarithmic laws proved to fit mean Bora velocity profiles well. With decreasing Bora velocity there is an increase in the power-law exponent and aerodynamic surface roughness length, and simultaneously a decrease in friction velocity. This indicates an urban-like velocity profile for smaller wind velocities and a rural-like velocity profile for larger wind velocities. Bora proved to be near-neutral thermally stratified. Turbulence intensity and lateral component of turbulence length scales agree well with ESDU 85020 for this particular terrain type. Longitudinal and vertical turbulence length scales, Reynolds shear stress and velocity power spectra differ considerably from ESDU 85020. This may have significant implications on calculations of Bora wind loads on structures.

• New & Renewable Energy
• /
• v.5 no.4
• /
• pp.21-27
• /
• 2009

Potential yield of micro wind turbine on the roof of urban high rise buildings is estimated. Urban wind profile is modeled as logarithmic profile above the mean building height with roughness length 0.8, displacement 7.5 m. Mean wind velocity from the meteorological agency data at the hight of 50m is used. Wind velocity changes are simulated on the rectangular roof of 26, 45, 53 degree pitch and the circular roof by computational fluid dynamics and RNG k-$\varepsilon$ turbulence models. Wind velocity increased approximately by a factor of the order of 270 % on the 26 degree pitched roof. In the 100 m and 200 m high buildings, wind enhancement is greater at the front side than at the center of the building. In the building arrangement model wind velocity changes abruptly and it becomes wind gusts. When commercial wind turbines are installed on the building roof, average power and annual power generation enhanced by 3~4 times than normal wind velocity at 50m and 6 kw wind turbine can generate 1053 kwh per month on the 26 degree pitched roof at 50m height and sufficiently supply electrical power with 15 household for common electrical use and food waste disposer. However, power output will vary significantly by the wind conditions in the order of $\pm$ 20 %.

• Wind and Structures
• /
• v.13 no.6
• /
• pp.487-498
• /
• 2010

When designing structures to the wind action, the variation of the mean wind velocity and turbulence parameters with the height above the ground must be taken into account. This paper presents the numerical simulation results of atmospheric boundary layer (ABL) airflows, in a numerical domain with no obstacles and with a cubic building. The results of the flow characterization, obtained with the FLUENT CFD code were performed using the ${\kappa}-{\varepsilon}$ turbulence model with the MMK modification. The mean velocity and turbulence intensity profiles in the inflow boundary were defined in accordance with the Eurocode 1.4, for different conditions of aerodynamic roughness. The maintenance of the velocity and turbulence characteristics along the domain were evaluated in an empty domain for uniform incident flow and the ABL Eurocode velocity profiles. The pressure coefficients on a cubic building were calculated using these inflow conditions.

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

• Wind and Structures
• /
• v.20 no.6
• /
• pp.763-791
• /
• 2015

"Wind and Ports" is a European project that has been carried out since 2009 to handle wind forecast in port areas through an integrated system made up of an extensive in-situ wind monitoring network, the numerical simulation of wind fields, the statistical analysis of wind climate, and algorithms for medium-term (1-3 days) and short term (0.5-2 hours) wind forecasting. The in-situ wind monitoring network, currently made up of 22 ultrasonic anemometers, provides a unique opportunity for detecting high resolution thunderstorm records and studying their dominant characteristics relevant to wind engineering with special concern for wind actions on structures. In such a framework, the wind velocity of thunderstorms is firstly decomposed into the sum of a slowly-varying mean part plus a residual fluctuation dealt with as a non-stationary random process. The fluctuation, in turn, is expressed as the product of its slowly-varying standard deviation by a reduced turbulence component dealt with as a rapidly-varying stationary Gaussian random process with zero mean and unit standard deviation. The extraction of the mean part of the wind velocity is carried out through a moving average filter, and the effect of the moving average period on the statistical properties of the decomposed signals is evaluated. Among other aspects, special attention is given to the thunderstorm duration, the turbulence intensity, the power spectral density and the integral length scale. Some noteworthy wind velocity ratios that play a crucial role in the thunderstorm loading and response of structures are also analyzed.

• Wind and Structures
• /
• v.38 no.2
• /
• pp.129-146
• /
• 2024

Aiming at the problem of non-stationary wind field simulation of downbursts, a non-stationary down-burst generation system was designed by adding a nozzle and program control valve to the inlet of the original wall jet model. The computational fluid dynamics (CFD) method was used to simulate the downburst. Firstly, the two-dimensional (2D) model was used to study the outflow situation, and the database of working conditions was formed. Then the combined superposition of working conditions was carried out to simulate the full-scale measured downburst. The three-dimensional (3D) large eddy simulation (LES) was used for further verification based on this superposition condition. Finally, the wind tunnel test is used to further verify. The results show that after the valve is opened, the wind ve-locity at low altitude increases rapidly, then stays stable, and the wind velocity at each point fluctuates. The velocity of the 2D model matches the wind velocity trend of the measured downburst well. The 3D model matches the measured downburst flow in terms of wind velocity and pulsation characteris-tics. The time-varying mean wind velocity of the wind tunnel test is in better agreement with the meas-ured time-varying mean wind velocity of the downburst. The power spectrum of fluctuating wind ve-locity at different vertical heights for the test condition also agrees well with the von Karman spectrum, and conforms to the "-5/3" law. The vertical profile of the maximum time-varying average wind veloci-ty obtained from the test shows the basic characteristics of the typical wind profile of the downburst. The effectiveness of the downburst generation system is verified.

• Wind and Structures
• /
• v.11 no.5
• /
• pp.413-426
• /
• 2008

A wind tunnel study has been carried out to determine the influence of spacing between buildings on wind characteristics above rural and suburban type of terrain. Experiments were performed for two types of buildings, three-floor family houses and five-floor apartment buildings. The atmospheric boundary layer (ABL) models were generated by means of the Counihan method using a castellated barrier wall, vortex generators and a fetch of roughness elements. A hot wire anemometry system was applied for measurement of mean velocity and velocity fluctuations. The mean velocity profiles are in good agreement with the power law for exponent values from ${\alpha}=0.15$ to ${\alpha}=0.24$, which is acceptable for the representation of the rural and suburban ABL, respectively. Effects of the spacing density among buildings on wind characteristics range from the ground up to $0.6{\delta}$. As the spacing becomes smaller, the mean flow is slowed down, whilst, simultaneously, the turbulence intensity and absolute values of the Reynolds stress increase due to the increased friction between the surface and the air flow. This results in a higher ventilation efficiency as the increased retardation of horizontal flow simultaneously accompanies an intensified vertical transfer of momentum.

• Wind and Structures
• /
• v.12 no.3
• /
• pp.219-237
• /
• 2009

This study examines the accuracy of large-eddy simulation (LES) to simulate the flow around a large irregular sloping complex terrain. Typically, real built up environments are surrounded by complex terrain geometries with many features. The complex terrain surrounding The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology campus was modelled and the flow over an uphill slope was simulated. The simulated results, including mean velocity profiles and turbulence intensities, were compared with the flow characteristics measured in a wind tunnel model test. Given the size of the domain and the corresponding constraints on the resolution of the simulation, the mean velocity components within the boundary layer flow, especially in the stream-wise direction were found to be reasonably well replicated by the LES. The turbulence intensity values were found to differ from the wind tunnel results in the building recirculation zones, mostly due to the constraints placed on spatial and temporal resolutions. Based on the validated mean velocity profile results, the flow-structure interactions around these buildings and the surrounding terrain were examined.

• Wind and Structures
• /
• v.22 no.1
• /
• pp.89-106
• /
• 2016

With an aim to assess the wind damage to urban trees in more realistic conditions, the nonlinear dynamics of structured trees subjected to strong winds with different levels is investigated in the present paper. For the logical treatment of dynamical behavior of trees, material nonlinearities of green wood associated with tree biomechanics and geometric nonlinearity of tree configuration are included. Applying simulated fluctuating wind velocity to the numerical model, the dynamical behavior of the structured tree is explored. A comparative study against the linear dynamics analysis usually involved in the previous researches is carried out. The failure wind velocity of urban trees is then defined, whereby the failure percentages of the tree components are exposed. Numerical investigations reveal that the nonlinear dynamics analysis of urban trees results in a more accurate solution of wind-induced response than the classical linear dynamics analysis, where the nonlinear effect of the tree behavior gives rise to be strengthened as increasing of the levels of wind velocity, i.e., the amplitude of 10-min mean wind velocity. The study of relationship between the failure percentage and the failure wind velocity provides a new perspective towards the vulnerability assessment of urban trees likely to fail due to wind actions, which is potential to link with the practical engineering.