• Wind and Structures
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• v.29 no.6
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• pp.471-488
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• 2019

Wind pressure is a critical argument for the wind-resistant design of structures. The attempt, however, to explore the wind pressure field on buildings still encounters challenges though a large body of researches utilizing wind tunnel tests and wind field simulations were carried out, due to the difficulty in logical treatments on the scale effect and the modeling error. The full-scale measurement has not yet received sufficient attention. By performing a field measurement, the present paper systematically addresses wind pressures on the rectangular attic of a double-tower building. The spatial and temporal correlations among wind speed and wind pressures at measured points are discussed. In order to better understand the wind pressure distribution on the attic facades and its relationship against the approaching flow, a full-scale CFD simulation on the similar rectangular attic is conducted as well. Comparative studies between wind pressure coefficients and those provided in wind-load codes are carried out. It is revealed that in the case of wind attack angle being zero, the wind pressure coefficient of the cross-wind facades exposes remarkable variations along both horizontal and vertical directions; while the wind pressure coefficient of the windward facade remains stable along horizontal direction but exposes remarkable variations along vertical direction. The pattern of wind pressure coefficients, however, is not properly described in the existing wind-load codes.

• Wind and Structures
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• v.16 no.6
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• pp.561-577
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• 2013

Rational Functions are used to express the self-excited aerodynamic forces acting on a flexible structure for use in time-domain flutter analysis. The Rational Function Approximation (RFA) approach involves obtaining of these Rational Functions from the frequency-dependent flutter derivatives by using an approximation. In the past, an algorithm was developed to directly extract these Rational Functions from wind tunnel section model tests in free vibration. In this paper, an algorithm is presented for direct extraction of these Rational Functions from section model tests in forced vibration. The motivation for using forced-vibration method came from the potential use of these Rational Functions to predict aerodynamic loads and response of flexible structures at high wind speeds and in turbulent wind environment. Numerical tests were performed to verify the robustness and performance of the algorithm under different noise levels that are expected in wind tunnel data. Wind tunnel tests in one degree-of-freedom (vertical/torsional) forced vibration were performed on a streamlined bridge deck section model whose Rational Functions were compared with those obtained by free vibration for the same model.

• Wind and Structures
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• v.27 no.6
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• pp.417-430
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• 2018

The concentration fields in the proximities of a local gas emission source are experimentally analyzed in several combinations of wind incidences and source emissions. These conditions are determined by the plume buoyancy, emission velocity and incident flow wind speed. Concentration measurements are performed by an aspirating probe in a boundary layer wind tunnel. The analysis included the mean concentration values and the intensity of concentration fluctuations in a neutral atmospheric boundary layer flow. Different configurations are tested: an isolated stack in a homogeneous terrain and a stack with a bluff body in close proximity, located windward and leeward from the emission source. The experimental mean concentration values are contrasted with Gaussian profiles and the dilution factor is analyzed with respect to the empirical curves of the minimum dilution. Finally, a study on the plume intermittency is performed in a cross-sectional plane near the emission source. It is possible to highlight the following observations: a) plume vertical asymmetry in the case of an isolated emission source, b) significant differences in the dispersion process related to the relative location of the emission source and bluff body effects, and c) different probabilistic behavior of the concentration fluctuation data in a cross-sectional measurement plane inside the plume.

• Journal of Biosystems Engineering
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• v.21 no.4
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• pp.429-435
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• 1996

A wind tunnel consisting of two air flow conditioners with polycarbonate pipes, a plant growth room, a suction fan and fan controller, and fluorescent lamps, was designed to investigate the interactions between the growth of plug seedlings under artificial light and their Physical environments. Light transmissivities in the plant growth room based on the photosynthetic photon flux density and photosynthetically active radiation was appeared to be 96.3% and 96.8%, respectively. Measurement showed a uniformity in the vertical profiles of air current speed at the middle and rear regions of plug trays in wind tunnel. This result indicated that the development of a wind tunnel based on the design criteria of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers was adequate. Air current speed inside the plug stand was significantly decreased due to the resistance by the leaves of plug seedlings and boundary layer developed over and below the plug stand. Driving force to facilitate the diffusion of gas inside the plug stand might be regarded as extremely low. Aerodynamic characteristics above the plug stand under artificial light were investigated. As the air current speed increased, zero plane displacement decreased but roughness length and frictional velocity increased. Zero plane displacement linearly increased with the average height of plug seedlings. The wind tunnel developed in this study would be useful to investigate the effects of air current speed on the microclimate over and inside the plug stand and to collect basic data for a large-scale plug production under artificial light in a semi-closed ecosystem.

• The KSFM Journal of Fluid Machinery
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• v.17 no.6
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• pp.64-68
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• 2014

This paper is intended to provide experimental data for the design of the small VAWT(vertical axis wind turbine). Three types(lift, drag, and hybrid) of the blade of VAWT are tested with digital wind tunnel in this study. From the test, the relation of power coefficient and tip speed ratio for the blades are evaluated and compared each other depending on the blade type. Especially, the characteristics of hybrid blade which is shown to be expanded in the market without any logical data is proposed in the relation of power coefficient and tip speed ratio. It is shown that the hybrid blade can be used to make higher starting torque with trade off of degradation of power coefficient.

• Wind and Structures
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• v.18 no.6
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• pp.651-668
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• 2014

Wind tunnel tests are conducted to investigate the wind loads on vertical fixed-roof cylindrical tanks with a very low aspect ratio of 0.275, which is a typical ratio for practical tanks with a volume of $100,000m^3$. Both the flat-roof tank and the dome-roof tank are investigated in present study. The first four moments of the measured wind pressure, including the mean and normalized deviation pressure, kurtosis and skewness of the pressure signal, are obtained to study the feature of the wind loads. It is shown that the wind loads are closely related to the behavior of flow around the structure. For either tank, the mean wind pressures on the cylinder are positive on the windward area and negative on the sides and the wake area, and the mean wind pressures on the whole roof are negative. The roof configurations have no considerable influence on the mean pressure distributions of cylindrical wall in general. Highly non-Gaussian feature is found in either tank. Conditional sampling technique, envelope method, and the proper orthogonal decomposition (POD) analysis are employed to investigate the characteristics of wind loads on the cylinder in more detail. It is shown that the patterns of wind pressure obtained from conditional sampling are similar to the mean pressure patterns.An instantaneous pressure coefficient can present a wide range from the maximum value to the minimum value. The quasi-steady assumption is not valid for structures considered in this paper according to the POD analysis.

• Wind and Structures
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• v.32 no.3
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• pp.179-191
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• 2021

A series of wind tunnel tests, including 1:50 sectional model tests, 1:50 free-standing bridge tower tests and 1:70 full-bridge aeroelastic model tests were carried out to systematically investigate the aerodynamic performance of the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge (HZMB). The test result indicates that there are three wind-resistant safety issues the HZMB encounters, including unacceptable low flutter critical wind speed, vertical vortex-induced vibration (VIV) of the main girder and galloping of the bridge tower in across-wind direction. Wind-induced vibration of HZMB can be effectively suppressed by the application of aerodynamic and mechanical measures. Acceptable flutter critical wind speed is achieved by optimizing the main girder form (before: large cantilever steel box girder, after: streamlined steel box girder) and cable type (before: central cable, after: double cable); The installations of wind fairing, guide plates and increasing structural damping are proved to be useful in suppressing the VIV of the HZMB; The galloping can be effectively suppressed by optimizing the interior angle on the windward side of the bridge tower. The present works provide scientific basis and guidance for wind resistance design of the HZMB.

• Wind and Structures
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• v.17 no.3
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• pp.299-315
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• 2013

Numerical research on four typical configurations of noise mitigation structures and their characteristics of wind loads are reported in this paper. The turbulence model as well the model parameters, the modeling of the equilibrium atmospheric boundary layer, the mesh discretization etc., were carefully considered in the numerical model to improve the numerical accuracy. Also a numerical validation of one configuration with the wind tunnel test data was made. Through detailed analyses of the wind load characteristics with the inclined part and the wind incidence angle, it was found that the addition of an inclined part to a noise mitigation structure at-grade would affect the mean nett pressure coefficients on the vertical part, and that the extent of this effect depends on the length of the inclined part itself. The magnitudes of the mean nett pressure coefficients for both the vertical part and the inclined part of noise mitigation structure at-grade tended to increase with length of inclined part. Finally, a comparison with the wind load code British/European Standard BS EN 1991-1-4:2005 was made and the envelope of the mean nett pressure coefficients of the noise mitigation structures was given for design purposes. The current research should be helpful to improve current wind codes by providing more reasonable wind pressure coefficients for different configurations of noise mitigation structures.

• Wind and Structures
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.119-158
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• 2015

The characteristics of the coherence functions of X axial, Y axial, and RZ axial (i.e., body axis) wind forces on the Shanghai World Trade Centre - a 492 m super-tall building with section varying along height are studied via a synchronous multi-pressure measurement of the rigid model in wind tunnel simulating of the turbulent, and the corresponding mathematical expressions are proposed there from. The investigations show that the mathematical expressions of coherence functions in across-wind and torsional-wind directions can be constructed by superimposition of a modified exponential decay function and a peak function caused by turbulent flow and vortex shedding respectively, while that in along-wind direction need only be constructed by the former, similar to that of wind speed. Moreover, an inductive analysis method is proposed to summarize the fitted parameters of the wind force coherence functions of every two measurement levels of altitudes. The comparisons of the first three order generalized force spectra show that the proposed mathematical expressions accord with the experimental results well. Later, the influences of coherence functions on wind-induced dynamic responses are analyzed in detail based on the proposed mathematical expressions and the frequency-domain method of random vibration theory.

• Wind and Structures
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• v.22 no.1
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• pp.17-41
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• 2016

To address the uncertainty of the flight trajectories caused by the turbulence and gustiness of the wind field over the roof and in the wake of a building, a 3-D probabilistic trajectory model of flat-type wind-borne debris is developed in this study. The core of this methodology is a 6 degree-of-freedom deterministic model, derived from the governing equations of motion of the debris, and a Monte Carlo simulation engine used to account for the uncertainty resulting from vertical and lateral gust wind velocity components. The influence of several parameters, including initial wind speed, time step, gust sampling frequency, number of Monte Carlo simulations, and the extreme gust factor, on the accuracy of the proposed model is examined. For the purpose of validation and calibration, the simulated results from the 3-D probabilistic trajectory model are compared against the available wind tunnel test data. Results show that the maximum relative error between the simulated and wind tunnel test results of the average longitudinal position is about 20%, implying that the probabilistic model provides a reliable and effective means to predict the 3-D flight of the plate-type wind-borne debris.