Aerodynamic profiling of terminal building using computational fluid dynamics approach

This paper presents wind tunnel measurements of pedestrian wind conditions in passages between various configurations of two long narrow perpendicular buildings in open country exposure. The investigated parameters are passage width, building height and wind direction. The measurements were made along the passage centerline. The aim of the paper is to provide more insight in the pedestrian wind conditions in these basic building configurations, to address some contradictory statements reported in the literature and to provide detailed experimental data for Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) validation. The results show that the wind speed amplification factors in diverging passages are generally larger than in converging passages. It is also shown that the maximum wind speed amplification factors increase monotonically with decreasing passage width, contrary to some general building design guidelines proposed in the past for such building configurations. Significant issues concerning the use of the experimental data for CFD validation are also discussed. Subject headings: Wind tunnel test; Boundary layer flow; Turbulent flow; Buildings; Wind speed; Amplification; Computational Fluid Dynamics.

/pdf/wind-environmental-conditions-in-passages-between-two-long-3dj2249gln.pdf

Wind environmental conditions in passages between two long narrow perpendicular buildings

Negative pressures on roofs of low-rise buildings are a major source of losses and community disruption during windstorms. The main driver for negative pressures is the fact that buildings are bluff bodies that cause flow separtion, compared to streamline objects such as an airplane wing. Consequently, the separated flow may create conical vortices that can significantly increase wind-induced uplift loads on roofs. Although vortex suppression technologies play a role in reducing wind loads on buildings, the challenge is related to exploring techniques that can reduce loads on roofs and the mitigation features themselves. In this paper, several aerodynamic mitigation techniques/features are proposed and tested by computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations, in a comparative study to permit selection among different potential solutions. Modifications to eliminate the sharp corners that cause flow separation and uplift forces are carried out. Different aerodynamic mitigation features including barriers, circular edges, inclined edges and airfoil edges are investigated. The study explores mitigation devices that not only can reduce wind-induced uplift loads on roofs, but also have minimum drag and lift forces. The results show that the slope-in features, representatives of solar panels for green energy production, are effective in reducing wind-induced uplift forces. In fact, having solar panels on buildings can be a feasible solution, especially when there is a potential for power outage due to windstorms. Such features, among other devices, can potentially protect roofs under windstorms, creating economic and green buildings. In addition, compared to all mitigation features presented in the current study, the airfoil produced the minimum uplift loads, with promises to proceeding research in this area.

Aerodynamic profiling of terminal building using computational fluid dynamics approach

References

Wind environmental conditions in passages between two long narrow perpendicular buildings

Aerodynamic mitigation of wind-induced uplift forces on low-rise buildings: A comparative study

Check the comfort of occupants in high rise building using CFD

Related Papers (5)

Aerodynamic Modeling Process Using Reverse Engineering and Computational Fluid Dynamics

Wind turbine modeling for computational fluid dynamics

Computational Fluid Dynamics: Computer Simulation

Computational Fluid Dynamics Applications in Data Centers

Investigation of Hybrid Grid–Based Computational Fluid Dynamics Methods for Rotorcraft Flow Analysis