• Wind and Structures
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• v.38 no.3
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• pp.171-191
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• 2024

Wind Driven Rain (WDR) poses a significant threat to the building environment, especially in hurricane prone regions by causing interior and content damage during tropical storms and hurricanes. The damage due to rain intrusion depends on the total amount of water that enters the building; however, owing to the use of inadequate empirical methods, the amount of water intrusion is difficult to estimate accurately. Hence, the need to achieve full-scale testing capable of realistically simulating rain intrusion is widely recognized. This paper presents results of a full-scale experimental simulation at the NHERI Wall of Wind Experimental Facility (WOW EF) aimed at obtaining realistic rain characteristics as experienced by structures during tropical storms and hurricanes. A full-scale simulation of rain in strong winds would allow testing WDR intrusion through typical building components. A study of rain intrusion through a sliding glass door is presented, which accounted for the effects of multiple wind directions, test durations and wind speeds; configurations with and without shuttering systems were also considered. The study showed that significant levels of water intrusion can occur during conditions well below current design levels. The knowledge gained through this work may enhance risk modeling pertaining to loss estimates due to WDR intrusion in buildings, and it may help quantify the potential reduction of losses due to the additional protection from shuttering systems on sliding glass doors during winds.

• Wind and Structures
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• v.5 no.5
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• pp.441-462
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• 2002

This paper presents a practical numerical method to determine both the spatial and temporal distribution of driving rain on buildings. It is based on an existing numerical simulation technique and uses the building geometry and climatic data at the building site as input. The method is applied to determine the 3D spatial and temporal distribution of wind-driven rain on the facade a low-rise building of complex geometry. Distinct wetting patterns are found. The important causes giving rise to these particular patterns are identified : (1) sweeping of raindrops towards vertical building edges, (2) sweeping of raindrops towards top edges, (3) shelter effect by various roof overhang configurations. The comparison of the numerical results with full-scale measurements in both space and time for a number of on site recorded rain events shows the numerical method to yield accurate results.

• Wind and Structures
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• v.11 no.3
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• pp.209-220
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• 2008

Flutter derivatives provide the basis of predicting the critical wind speed in flutter and buffeting analysis of long-span cable-supported bridges. Many studies have been performed on the methods and applications of identification of flutter derivatives of bridge decks under wind action. In fact, strong wind, especially typhoon, is always accompanied by heavy rain. Then, what is the effect of rain on flutter derivatives and flutter critical wind speed of bridges? Unfortunately, there have been no studies on this subject. This paper makes an initial study on this problem. Covariance-driven Stochastic Subspace Identification (SSI in short) which is capable of estimating the flutter derivatives of bridge decks from their steady random responses is presented first. An experimental set-up is specially designed and manufactured to produce the conditions of rain and wind. Wind tunnel tests of a quasi-streamlined thin plate model are conducted under conditions of only wind action and simultaneous wind-rain action, respectively. The flutter derivatives are then extracted by the SSI method, and comparisons are made between the flutter derivatives under the two different conditions. The comparison results tentatively indicate that rain has non-trivial effects on flutter derivatives, especially on and $H_2$ and $A_2$thus the flutter critical wind speeds of bridges.

• 한국전산유체공학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2010.05a
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• pp.242-246
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• 2010

To determine the trajectories and the impact of rain drops on the facade of a tall building, a particle tracking method is employed form steady state simulation of turbulent flow around the building. The simulation is performed for the upper part of the building comprising a detailed louver system. Rain is trapped at relative high rates on the roof and the penthouse, with Local Intensity Factors (LIF's) of the order of 1. The upper parapets and upper floors get a fair amount of wetting with LIF's of the order of 0.6. The wetting decreases downwards reaching values of 0.2 to 0.25 at the level of the louver system.

• Wind and Structures
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• v.27 no.1
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• pp.11-27
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• 2018

The straight-cone steel cooling tower is a novel type of structure, which has a distinct aerodynamic distribution on the internal surface of the tower cylinder compared with conventional hyperbolic concrete cooling towers. Especially in the extreme weather conditions of strong wind and heavy rain, heavy rain also has a direct impact on aerodynamic force on the internal surface and changes the turbulence effect of pulsating wind, but existing studies mainly focus on the impact effect brought by wind-driven rain to structure surface. In addition, for the indirect air cooled cooling tower, different additional ventilation rate of shutters produces a considerable interference to air movement inside the tower and also to the action mechanism of loads. To solve the problem, a straight-cone steel cooling towerstanding 189 m high and currently being constructed is taken as the research object in this study. The algorithm for two-way coupling between wind and rain is adopted. Simulation of wind field and raindrops is performed with 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 sped and rainfall intensity on flow field mechanism, the volume of wind-driven rain, additional action force of raindrops and equivalent internal pressure coefficient of the tower cylinder is analyzed. On this basis, the internal pressures of the cooling tower under the most unfavorable working condition are compared between four ventilation rates of shutters (0%, 15%, 30% and 100%). The results show that the 3D effect of equivalent internal pressure coefficient is the most significant when considering two-way coupling between wind and rain. Additional load imposed by raindrops on the internal surface of the tower accounts for an extremely small proportion of total wind load, the maximum being only 0.245%. This occurs under the combination of 20 m/s wind velocity and 200 mm/h rainfall intensity. Ventilation rate of shutters not only changes the air movement inside the tower, but also affects the accumulated amount and distribution of raindrops on the internal surface.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.70 no.4
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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.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.38 no.1
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• pp.99-123
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• 2011

Brick veneer over steel stud backup wall is lighter and easier to construct compared to brick veneer over concrete masonry backup wall. However, due to the relatively low stiffness of the steel stud backup, the brick veneer tends to crack under wind load. This paper briefly introduces a new panelized brick veneer with steel frame backup wall system that is developed to potentially address this problem. The experimental study of the performance of this system under simulated wind loading is discussed in detail. The test setup details and the test specimens are introduced, results of major interests are presented, and performance of the new system is evaluated based on the test results.

• Wind and Structures
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• v.36 no.2
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• pp.75-90
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• 2023

Turbulent wind flow over hilly terrains has been extensively investigated in the scientific literature and main findings have been included in technical standards. In particular, turbulent wind flow over nominally two-dimensional hills is often adopted as a benchmark to investigate wind turbine siting, estimate wind loading, and dispersion of particles transported by the wind, such as atmospheric pollutants, wind-driven rain, windblown snow. Windblown sand transport affects human-built structures and natural ecosystems in sandy desert and coastal regions, such as transport infrastructures and coastal sand dunes. Windblown sand transport taking place around any kind of obstacle is rarely in equilibrium conditions. As a result, the modelling of windblown sand transport over complex orographies is fundamental, even if seldomly investigated. In this study, the authors present a wind-sand tunnel test campaign carried out on a nominally two-dimensional sinusoidal hill. A first test is carried out on a flat sand fetch without any obstacle to assess sand transport in open field conditions. Then, a second test is carried out on the hill model to assess the sand flux overcoming the hill and the morphodynamic evolution of the sand sedimenting over its upwind slope. Finally, obtained results are condensed into a dimensionless parameter describing its sedimentation capability and compared with values resulting from other nominally two-dimensional obstacles from the literature.

• Wind and Structures
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• v.16 no.4
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• pp.301-322
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• 2013

Recent major post-hurricane damage assessments in the United States have reported that the most common damages result from the loss of building roof coverings and subsequent wind driven rain intrusion. In an effort to look further into this problem, this paper presents a full-scale (Wall of Wind --WoW--) investigation of external and underneath wind pressures on roof tiles installed on a low-rise building model with various gable roofs. The optimal dimensions for the low-rise building that was tested with the WOW are 2.74 m (9 ft) long, 2.13 m (7 ft) wide, and 2.13 m (7 ft) high. The building is tested with interchangeable gable roofs at three different slopes (2:12; 5:12 and 7:12). The field tiles of these gable roofs are considered with three different tile profiles namely high (HP), medium (MP), and low profiles (LP) in accordance with Florida practice. For the ridge, two different types namely rounded and three-sided tiles were considered. The effect of weather block on the "underneath" pressure that develops between the tiles and the roof deck was also examined. These tests revealed the following: high pressure coefficients for the ridge tile compared to the field tiles, including those located at the corners; considerably higher pressure on the gable end ridge tiles compared to ridge tiles at the middle of the ridge line; and marginally higher pressure on barrel type tiles compared to the three-sided ridge tiles. The weather blocking of clay tiles, while useful in preventing water intrusion, it doesn't have significant effect on the wind loads of the field tiles. The case with weather blocking produces positive mean underneath pressure on the field tiles on the windward side thus reducing the net pressures on the windward surface of the roof. On the leeward side, reductions in net pressure to a non-significant level were observed due to the opposite direction of the internal and external pressures. The effect of the weather blocking on the external pressure on the ridge tile was negligible.

• Journal of the Korea Institute of Information and Communication Engineering
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• v.24 no.5
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• pp.646-654
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• 2020

This paper is to develop an electromagnetic wave-based sensor that can measure the spatial distribution of precipitation, and to a electromagnetic wave rain gauge (hereinafter, "EWRG") capable of simultaneously measuring rainfall, snowfall, and wind field, which are the core of heavy rain observation. Through this study, the LFM transmission and reception signals were theoretically analyzed. In addition, In order to develop a radar transceiver, LFM transceiver design and simulation were conducted. In this paper, we developed a K-BAND pulse-driven 6W SSPA(Solid State Power Amplifiers) transceiver using a small HMIC(Hybrid Microwave Integrated Circuit). It has more than 6W of output power and less than 5dB of receiving NF(Noise Figure) with short duty of 1% in high temperature environment of 65 degrees. The manufactured module emits LFM and Square Pulse waveform with the built-in waveform generator, and the receiver has more than 40dB of gain. The transceiver developed in this paper can be applied to the other small weather radar.