• Wind and Structures
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• 제8권4호
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• pp.235-250
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• 2005

The paper describes the work of the Working Group on Wind Structure, one of the International Codification Working Groups set up by the International Association of Wind Engineering in 1999. The topics of terrain and exposure, shielding and shelter, topographic effects, tropical cyclone and hurricane wind structure, and thunderstorm wind structure, are described with emphasis on their codification in wind loading codes and standards. Recommendations from the working group are given.

• Wind and Structures
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• 제20권6호
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• pp.763-791
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• 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
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• 제15권4호
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• pp.331-343
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• 2012

Thunderstorm downbursts are responsible for numerous structural failures around the world. The wind characteristics in thunderstorm downbursts containing vortex rings differ with those in 'traditional' boundary layer winds (BLW). This paper initially performs an unsteady-state simulation of the flow structure in a downburst (modelled as a impinging jet with its diameter being $D_{jet}$) using a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) method, and then analyses the pressure distribution on a solar updraft tower (SUT) in the downburst. The pressure field shows agreement with other previous studies. An additional pair of low-pressure region and high-pressure region is observed due to a second vortex ring, besides a foregoing pair caused by a primary vortex ring. The evolutions of pressure coefficients at five orientations of two representative heights of the SUT in the downburst with time are investigated. Results show that pressure distribution changes over a wide range when the vortices are close to the SUT. Furthermore, the fluctuations of external static pressure distribution for the SUT case 1 (i.e., radial distance from a location to jet center x=$D_{jet}$) with height are more intense due to the down striking of the vortex flow compared to those for the SUT case 2 (x=$2D_{jet}$). The static wind loads at heights z/H higher than 0.3 will be negligible when the vortex ring is far away from the SUT. The inverted wind load cases will occur when vortex is passing through the SUT except on the side faces. This can induce complex dynamic response of the SUT.

• 조명전기설비학회논문지
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• 제28권10호
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• pp.63-68
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• 2014

This paper deals with a methodology that applies the time-varying magnetic fields produced by the cloud discharges to find the direction of thunderstorm movement. We investigated the basic performance of the magnetic field measurement system composed of multi-turn loop-type sensors, the differential amplifier and active integrator. As a result, the response characteristics of the magnetic field sensor system to sinusoidal signals was excellent. The frequency bandwidth ranges from about 1 kHz to 500 kHz, the response sensitivity was 0.16mV/nT. In addition, we proposed the algorithm that determines the direction of lightning discharges using the comparison of the output signals of right-angled loop-type magnetic field sensors. The accuracy of the direction finding of lightning discharges is fairly well within the measurement error of less than $5^{\circ}$. The magnetic field measurement system proposed in this work can be used to track the direction of thunderstorm movement.

• Wind and Structures
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• 제15권2호
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• pp.111-129
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• 2012

Codes for structural design usually assume that the incident mean wind velocity is parallel to the ground, which constitutes a valid simplification for frequent winds caused by sypnoptic events. Wind effects due to other phenomena, such as thunderstorm downbursts, are simply neglected. In this paper, results of recent and ongoing research on this topic in Brazil are presented. The model of the three-dimensional wind velocity field originated from a downburst in a thunderstorm (TS), proposed by Ponte and Riera for engineering applications, is first described. This model allows the generation of a spatially and temporally variable velocity field, which also includes a fluctuating component of the velocity. All parameters are related to meteorological variables, which are susceptible of statistical assessment. An application of the model in the simulation of the wind climate in a region sujected to both EPS and TS winds is discussed next. It is shown that, once the relevant meteorological variables are known, the simulation of the wind excitation for purposes of design of transmission lines, long-span crossings and similar structures is feasible. Complementing the theoretical studies, wind velocity records during a recent TS event in southern Brazil are presented and preliminary conclusions on the validity of the proposed models discussed.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• 제6권7호
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• pp.773-784
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• 1998

To assess the collapse risk of transmission line structures subject to natural hazards, it is important to identify what hazard may cause the structural collapse. In Australia and many other countries, a large proportion of failures of transmission line structures are caused by severe thunderstorms. Because the wind loads generated by thunderstorms are not only random but time-variant as well, a time-dependent structural reliability approach for the risk assessment of transmission line structures is essential. However, a lack of appropriate stochastic models for thunderstorm winds usually makes this kind of analysis impossible. The intention of the paper is to propose a stochastic model that could realistically and accurately simulate wind loading due to severe thunderstorms. With the proposed thunderstorm model, the collapse risk of transmission line structures under severe thunderstorms is assessed numerically based on the computed failure probability of the structure.

• Wind and Structures
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• 제9권6호
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• pp.419-440
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• 2006

This article synthesizes the literature on the meteorology, experimental simulation, and wind engineering ramifications of intense downburst outflows. A novel design of a large-scale test facility and experimental evidence of its validity are presented. A two-dimensional slot jet is used to simulate only the outflow region of a downburst. Profiles of mean velocity and turbulence quantities are acquired using hot-wire anemometry. Comparison with the literature provides empirical evidence that supports the current approach. A geometric analysis considers the validity of applying a two-dimensional approximation for downburst wind loading of structures. This analysis is applicable to power transmission lines in particular. The slot jet concept can be implemented in a large boundary layer wind tunnel to enable large-scale laboratory experiments of thunderstorm wind loads on structures.

• Wind and Structures
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• 제12권1호
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• pp.77-88
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• 2009

A pulsed impinging jet is used to simulate the gust front of a thunderstorm downburst. This work concentrates on investigating the peak transient loading conditions on a 30 mm cubic model submerged in the simulated downburst flow. The outflow induced pressures are recorded and compared to those from boundary layer and steady wall jet flow. Given that peak winds associated with downburst events are often located in the transient frontal region, the importance of using a non-stationary modelling technique for assessing peak downburst wind loads is highlighted with comparisons.

• Wind and Structures
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• 제12권2호
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• pp.133-149
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• 2009

This paper outlines the results of a physical simulation (at a 1:700 - 1:1000 geometric scale) of a thunderstorm downburst. Three different methods are examined in order to generate the time dependent nature of a downburst: directly controlling the fans and via two different types of opening apertures. Similarities are shown to exist between each method, although the results obtained from one approach are favoured since they appear to be independent of the downdraft velocity. Significant run-to-run variations between each experiment are discovered and in general it is found beneficial to interpret the results in terms of 10 run ensemble averages. An attempt to simulate a translating downburst is also undertaken and the results are shown to compare favourably with full-scale data.

• Wind and Structures
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• 제26권3호
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• pp.147-161
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• 2018

For wind engineering applications downbursts are, presently, almost exclusively modeled, both experimentally and numerically, as transient impinging momentum jets (IJ), even though that model contains none of the physics of real events. As a result, there is no connection between the IJ-simulated downburst wind fields and the conditions of formation of the event. The cooling source (CS) model offers a significant improvement since it incorporates the negative buoyancy forcing and baroclinic vorticity generation that occurs in nature. The present work aims at using large-scale numerical simulation of downburst-producing thunderstorms to develop a simpler model that replicates some of the key physics whilst maintaining the relative simplicity of the IJ model. Using an example of such a simulated event it is found that the non-linear scaling of the velocity field, based on the peak potential temperature (and, hence, density) perturbation forcing immediately beneath the storm cloud, produces results for the radial location of the peak radial outflow wind speeds near the ground, the magnitude of that peak and the time at which the peak occurs that match well (typically within 5%) of those produced from a simple axi-symmetric constant-density dense source simulation. The evolution of the downdraft column within the simulated thunderstorm is significantly more complex than in any axi-symmetric model, with a sequence of downdraft winds that strengthen then weaken within a much longer period (>17 minutes) of consistently downwards winds over almost all heights up to at least 2,500 m.