• Wind and Structures
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• v.26 no.3
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• pp.179-190
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• 2018

Translation of tornadoes is an important feature in replicating the near-ground tornado flow field which has been simulated in previous studies based on Ward-type tornado simulators using relative motion of the ground plane. In this laboratory investigation, effects of translation on the near-ground tornado flow field were studied using the ISU Tornado Simulator that can physically translate over a ground plane. Two translation speeds, 0.15 m/s and 0.50 m/s, that scale up to those corresponding to slowly-moving tornadoes in the field were selected for this study. Compared with the flow field of a stationary tornado, the simulated tornado with translation had an influence on the spatial distribution and magnitude of the horizontal velocities, early reversal of the radial inflow, and expansion of the core radius. Maximum horizontal velocities were observed to occur behind the center of the translating tornado and on the right side of its mean path. An increase in translation speed, resulted in reduction of maximum horizontal velocities at all heights. Comparison of the results with previous studies that used relative motion of the ground plane for simulating translating tornadoes, showed that translation has similar effects on the flow field at smaller radial distances (~2 core radius), but different effects at larger radial distances (~4 core radius). Further, it showed that the effect of translation on velocity profiles is noticeable at and above an elevation of ~0.6 core radius, unlike those in studies based on the relative motion of the ground plane.

• Wind and Structures
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• v.11 no.2
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• pp.75-96
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• 2008

A better understanding of tornado-induced wind loads is needed to improve the design of typical structures to resist these winds. An accurate understanding of the loads requires knowledge of near-ground tornado winds, but observations in this region are lacking. The first goal of this study was to verify how well a CFD model, when driven by far field radar observations and laboratory measurements, could capture the flow characteristics of both full scale and laboratory-simulated tornadoes. A second goal was to use the model to examine the sensitivity of the simulations to various parameters that might affect the laboratory simulator tornado. An understanding of near-ground winds in tornadoes will require coordinated efforts in both computational and physical simulation. The sensitivity of computational simulations of a tornado to geometric parameters and surface roughness within a domain based on the Iowa State University laboratory tornado simulator was investigated. In this study, CFD simulations of the flow field in a model domain that represents a laboratory tornado simulator were conducted using Doppler radar and laboratory velocity measurements as boundary conditions. The tornado was found to be sensitive to a variety of geometric parameters used in the numerical model. Increased surface roughness was found to reduce the tangential speed in the vortex near the ground and enlarge the core radius of the vortex. The core radius was a function of the swirl ratio while the peak tangential flow was a function of the magnitude of the total inflow velocity. The CFD simulations showed that it is possible to numerically simulate the surface winds of a tornado and control certain parameters of the laboratory simulator to influence the tornado characteristics of interest to engineers and match those of the field.

• Wind and Structures
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• v.35 no.2
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• pp.131-146
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• 2022

Tornadic wind flow is inherently turbulent. A turbulent wind flow is characterized by fluctuation of the velocity in the flow field with time, and it is a dynamic process that consists of eddy formation, eddy transportation, and eddy dissipation due to viscosity. Properly modeling turbulence significantly increases the accuracy of numerical simulations. The lack of a clear and detailed comparison between turbulence models used in tornadic wind flows and their effects on tornado induced pressure demonstrates a significant research gap. To bridge this research gap, in this study, two representative turbulence modeling approaches are applied in simulating real-world tornadoes to investigate how the selection of turbulence models affects the simulated tornadic wind flow and the induced pressure on structural surface. To be specific, LES with Smagorinsky-Lilly Subgrid and k-ω are chosen to simulate the 3D full-scale tornado and the tornado-structure interaction with a building present in the computational domain. To investigate the influence of turbulence modeling, comparisons are made of velocity field and pressure field of the simulated wind field and of the pressure distribution on building surface between the cases with different turbulence modeling.

• Wind and Structures
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• v.37 no.6
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• pp.413-423
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• 2023

Wind turbines are usually steel hollow structures that can be vulnerable to dramatic failures due to high-intensity wind (HIW) events, which are classified as a category of localized windstorms that includes tornadoes and downbursts. Analyzing Wind Turbines (WT) under tornadoes is a challenging-to-achieve task because tornadoes are much more complicated wind fields compared with the synoptic boundary layer wind fields, considering that the tornado's 3-D velocity components vary largely in space. As a result, the supporting tower of the wind turbine and the blades will experience different velocities depending on the location of the event. Wind farms also extend over a large area so that the probability of a localized windstorm event impacting one or more towers is relatively high. Therefore, the built-in-house numerical code "HIW-WT" has been developed to predict the straining actions on the blades considering the variability of the tornado's location and the blades' pitch angle. The developed HIWWT numerical model incorporates different wind fields that were generated from developed CFD models. The developed numerical model was applied on an actual wind turbine under three different tornadoes that have different tornadic structure. It is found that F2 tornado wind fields present significant hazard for the wind turbine blades and have to be taken into account if the hazardous impact of this type of unexpected load is to be avoided.

• Wind and Structures
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• v.27 no.2
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• pp.111-121
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• 2018

Experiments were conducted in a large-scale Ward-type tornado simulator to study tornado-like vortices. Both flow velocities and the pressures at the surface beneath the vortices were measured. An interpretation of these measurements enabled an assessment of the mean flow field as well as the mean and fluctuating characteristics of the surface pressure deficit, which is a manifestation of the flow fluctuation aloft. An emphasis was placed on the effect of the aspect ratio of the tornado simulator on the characteristics of the simulated flow and the corresponding surface pressure deficit, especially the evolution of these characteristics due to the transition of the flow from a single-celled vortex to a two-celled vortex with increasing swirl ratio.

• Wind and Structures
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• v.38 no.4
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• pp.325-339
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• 2024

The longitudinal force resulting from tornado loads on transmission line is considered a crucial factor contributing to the failure of transmission line structures during tornado events. Accurate estimation of this longitudinal force poses a challenge for structural designers. Therefore, the objective of this paper is to provide a set of charts that can be easily used to estimate the peak longitudinal forces transferred from the conductors to a tower. The critical wind field and corresponding configuration considered in this paper are previously studied and determined. The charts should account for all the conductor parameters that can affect the value of the longitudinal force. In order to achieve that, a parametric study is first conducted to assess the variation of the longitudinal forces with different conductor parameters, based on the critical tornado configuration. Results of this parametric study are used to develop the charts that can be used to calculate longitudinal forces by adopting a multi-variable line regression. The forces calculated from charts are validated by finite element analysis. An example for the usage of the charts is provided at the end of this paper.

• Wind and Structures
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• v.36 no.3
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• pp.161-174
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• 2023

The analytical model of tornado vortices plays an essential role in tornado wind description and tornado-resistant design of civil structures. However, there is still a lack of guidance for the selection and application of tornado analytical models since they are different from each other. For single-cell tornado vortices, this study conducts a comparative study on the velocity characteristics of the analytical models based on numerically simulated tornado-like vortices (TLV). The single-cell stage TLV is first generated by Large-eddy simulations (LES). The spatial distribution of the three-dimensional mean velocity of the typical analytical tornado models is then investigated by comparison to the TLV with different swirl ratios. Finally, key parameters are given as functions of swirl ratio for the direct application of analytical tornado models to generate full-scale tornado wind field. Results show that the height of the maximum radial mean velocity is more appropriate to be defined as the boundary layer thickness of the TLV than the height of the maximum tangential mean velocity. The TLV velocity within the boundary layer can be well estimated by the analytical model. Simple fitted results show that the full-scale maximum radial and tangential mean velocity increase linearly with the swirl ratio, while the radius and height corresponding to the position of these two velocities decrease non-linearly with the swirl ratio.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.49 no.2
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• pp.395-403
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• 2017

An efficient evaluation method for the probability of a tornado missile strike without using the Monte Carlo method is proposed in this paper. A major part of the proposed probability evaluation is based on numerical results computed using an in-house code, Tornado-borne missile analysis code, which enables us to evaluate the liftoff and flight behaviors of unconstrained objects on the ground driven by a tornado. Using the Tornado-borne missile analysis code, we can obtain a stochastic correlation between local wind speed and flight distance of each object, and this stochastic correlation is used to evaluate the conditional strike probability, $Q_V(r)$, of a missile located at position r, where the local wind speed is V. In contrast, the annual exceedance probability of local wind speed, which can be computed using a tornado hazard analysis code, is used to derive the probability density function, p(V). Then, we finally obtain the annual probability of tornado missile strike on a structure with the convolutional integration of product of $Q_V(r)$ and p(V) over V. The evaluation method is applied to a simple problem to qualitatively confirm the validity, and to quantitatively verify the results for two extreme cases in which an object is located just in the vicinity of or far away from the structure.

• Atmosphere
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.7-10
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• 2004

A short review on TOTO (TOtable Tornado Observatory), one of the earliest in-situ observing systems for tornado, is provided. TOTO was outfitted with sensors for measuring wind, pressure and humidity, and storm researchers, in mid-1980's, tried to put it inside tornadoes for detailed studies on tornado, but failed. However, the accumulated knowledge and experience with TOTO lead to a successful field program in mid-1990's. A story about DOROTHY, a parody of TO TO in the movie "Twister!", is also provided.

• Wind and Structures
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• v.27 no.2
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• pp.137-147
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• 2018

Heavy damages to properties with attendant losses were frequently caused by tornadoes in recent years. This natural hazard is one of the most destructive wind events that must be fully studied and well understood in order to keep the safety of structures and infrastructure facilities. On June 23, 2016, a severe tornado, which is an Enhanced Fujita (EF) 4 storm, occurred in the rim of a coastal city named as Yancheng in China. Numerous low-rise buildings as well as facilities (e.g., transmission towers) were destroyed or damaged. In this paper, damages to structures and infrastructure facilities by the severe tornado are reviewed. The collapses of residential buildings, industrial structures and other infrastructure facilities are described. With an overview of the damages, various possible mechanisms of the collapse are then discussed and utilized to reveal the initiation of the damage to various facilities. It is hoped that this paper can provide a concise but comprehensive reference for the researchers and engineers to help understand the tornado effects on structures and expose the vulnerabilities that need to be improved in current wind-resistant design practices.