• Wind and Structures
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• v.30 no.6
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• pp.597-616
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• 2020

The blockage effect on the aerodynamic characteristics of tall buildings is a fundamental issue in wind tunnel test but has rarely been addressed. To evaluate the blockage effects on the aerodynamic forces on a square tall building and flow field peripherally, large eddy simulations (LES) were performed on a 3D square cylinder with an aspect ratio of 6:1 under the uniform smooth inflow and turbulent atmospheric boundary layer (ABL) inflow generated by the narrowband synthesis random flow generator (NSRFG). First, a basic case at a blockage ratio (BR) of 0.8% was conducted to validate the adopted numerical methodology. Subsequently, simulations were systematically performed at 6 different BRs. The simulation results were compared in detail to illustrate the differences induced by the blockage, and the mechanism of the blockage effects under turbulent inflow was emphatically analysed. The results reveal that the pressure coefficients, the aerodynamic forces, and the Strouhal number increase monotonically with BRs. Additionally, the increase of BR leads to more coherence of the turbulent structures and the higher intensity of the vortices in the vicinity of the building. Moreover, the blockage effects on the aerodynamic forces and flow field are more significant under smooth inflow than those under turbulent inflow.

• Wind and Structures
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• v.30 no.1
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• pp.55-67
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• 2020

Wind tunnel test is one of the most important means to study the flutter performance of bridges, but there are blockage effects in flutter test due to the size limitation of the wind tunnel. On the other hand, the size of computational domain can be defined by users in the numerical simulation. This paper presents a study on blockage effects of a simplified box girder by computation fluid dynamics (CFD) simulation, the blockage effects on the aerodynamic characteristics and flutter performance of a long-span suspension bridge are studied. The results show that the aerodynamic coefficients and the absolute value of mean pressure coefficient increase with the increase of the blockage ratio. And the aerodynamic coefficients can be corrected by the mean wind speed in the plane of leading edge of model. At each angle of attack, the critical flutter wind speed decreases as the blockage ratio increases, but the difference is that bending-torsion coupled flutter and torsional flutter occur at lower and larger angles of attack respectively. Finally, the correction formula of critical wind speed at 0° angle of attack is given, which can provide reference for wind resistance design of streamlined box girders in practical engineering.

• Journal of the Society of Naval Architects of Korea
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• v.43 no.4 s.148
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• pp.431-439
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• 2006

Due to the limitation of size of the test section, blockage effects could not be avoided in the model test of yacht sails for common wind tunnels. In this paper, a numerical analysis is performed to investigate the blockage effects on the lift and drag forces measured from wind tunnel experiments for a 30 feet sloop yacht sail. Complex airflows around the jib and main sails including three-dimensional flow separations are calculated for various close-hauled conditions. It is found that the blockage of a wind tunnel changes the flow separation and consequently the lift and drag forces of the sails, especially the main sail, reduce and increase, respectively, due to the blockage effects.

• Wind and Structures
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• v.1 no.4
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• pp.351-364
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• 1998

In wind tunnel experiments, the blockage effect is a very important factor which affects the test results significantly. A number of investigations into this problem, especially on the blockage correction of drag coefficient, have been carried out in the past. However, only a limited number of works have been reported on the wind tunnel blockage effect on wind-induced vibration although it is considered to be fairly important. This paper discusses the aerodynamic characteristics of the square model and square model with corner cut based on a series of the wind tunnel tests with various blockage ratios and angles of attack. From the test results, the aerodynamic behavior of square models with up to 10% blockage ratio are almost the same and square models with up to 10% blockage ratio can be tested as a group which behaves similarly.

• Wind and Structures
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• v.13 no.1
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• pp.21-36
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• 2010

A new full scale testing apparatus generically named the Wall of Wind (WoW) has been built by the researchers at the International Hurricane Research Center (IHRC) at Florida International University (FIU). WoW is capable of testing single story building models subjected up to category 3 hurricane wind speeds. Depending on the relative model and WoW wind field sizes, testing may entail blockage issues. In addition, the proximity of the test building to the wind simulator may also affect the aerodynamic data. This study focuses on the Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) assessment of the effects on the quality of the aerodynamic data of (i) blockage due to model buildings of various sizes and (ii) wind simulator proximity for various distances between the wind simulator and the test building. The test buildings were assumed to have simple parallelepiped shapes. The computer simulations were performed under both finite WoW wind-field conditions and in an extended Atmospheric Boundary Layer (ABL) wind flow. Mean pressure coefficients for the roof and the windward and leeward walls served as measures of the blockage and wind simulator proximity effects. The study uses the commercial software FLUENT with Reynolds Averaged Navier Stokes equations and a Renormalization Group (RNG) k-${\varepsilon}$ turbulence model. The results indicated that for larger size test specimens (i.e. for cases where the height of test specimen is larger than one third of the wind field height) blockage correction may become necessary. The test specimen should also be placed at a distance greater than twice the height of the test specimen from the fans to reduce proximity effect.

• Journal of computational fluids engineering
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• v.13 no.4
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• pp.33-38
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• 2008

For study on the unsteady blockage effect, flows around a rotationally oscillating circular cylinder with relatively low forcing frequency in closed test-section wind tunnels have been numerically investigated by solving compressible Navier-Stokes equations. The numerical scheme is based on a node-based finite-volume method with the Roe's flux-difference splitting and an implicit time-integration method coupled with dual time-step sub-iteration. The computed results of the oscillating cylinder in the test section showed that the fluctuations of lift and drag are augmented by the blockage effects. The drag further increases because of low base pressure. The pressure on the test section wall shows the harmonics having the oscillating and the shedding frequencies contained in the blockage effect.

• Journal of Power System Engineering
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.83-89
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• 2015

A ball strainer screen module, which is used for a condenser tube cleaning system, is a critical mechanical component for maintaining condenser cleanliness. Despite of this importance, not many research have been focused on this module because of its relatively low usage. Employing CFD, this study examines the implication of fluid velocity change and blockage ratio on the ball strainer screen velocity and the static pressure distribution. Through this study, the impact of blockage in the space between ball strainer screen modules is verified. Also, it is found that the ranges of non-dimensional velocity distribution and static pressure distribution decrease as blockage ratio becomes smaller.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers
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• v.6 no.3
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• pp.211-221
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• 1982

Numerical analysis has been made on the heat transfer of two dimensional turbulent channel with a slat type blockage. Especially the effects of the height of slat and Reynolds number on the heat transfer characteristics of channel wall have been investigated. The methods of accelerating the convergence of the numerical solution of governing differential equation have been also examined. Line-by-line iterative method shows higher convergence rate than point-by-point iterative method for solution of both momentum equation and energy equation. The results show that the ratio of heat transfer coefficient of the wall near the blockage to that of the fully developed flow increase with increasing the ratio of blockage to channel height and decreasing the Reynolds number. These trends of variation of heat transfer coefficient with respect to the height of slat and Reynolds number agree with those of Sparrow's experiment on the pipe flow with slat type blockage.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
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• v.32 no.1
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• pp.39-46
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• 2008

The loss coefficient of the butterfly valve which allows partial opening of the valve at closed position and is applicable to the small-sized pipe system with the diameter of 1 inch was measured for the variation of the valve disk blockage ratio. Two different types of the valve disk configuration to adjust the blockage ratio were considered. One was the solid type valve disk of which the diameter was changed into the smaller size rather than the pipe diameter, and the other was the perforate type valve disk on which some holes were perforated. The results from two types of valve disk were compared to identify their characteristics in the loss coefficient distributions. The loss coefficient and the controllable angle of the valve disk were decreased exponentially with the decrease of the blockage ratio. In addition, the perforate valve disk had the effect on the higher loss coefficient rather than the solid type valve disk.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Propulsion Engineers Conference
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• 2008.03a
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• pp.743-750
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• 2008

Asymmetric tip clearance in an axial compressor induces pressure and velocity redistributions along the circumferential direction in an axial compressor. This paper presents the mechanism of the flow redistribution due to the asymmetric tip clearance with a simple numerical modeling. The flow field of a rotor of an axial compressor is predicted when an asymmetric tip clearance occurs along the circumferential direction. The modeling results are supported by CFD results not only to validate the present modeling but also to investigate more detailed flow fields. Asymmetric tip clearance makes local flow area and resultant axial velocity vary along the circumferential direction. This flow redistribution 'seed' results in a different flow patterns according to the flow coefficient. Flow field redistribution patterns are largely dependent on the local tip clearance performance at low flow coefficients. However, the contribution of the main flow region becomes dominant while the tip clearance effect becomes weak as the flow coefficient increases. The flow field redistribution pattern becomes noticeably strong if a blockage effect is involved when the flow coefficient increases. The relative flow angle at the small clearance region decreases which result in a negative incidence angle at the high flow coefficient. It causes a recirculation region at the blade pressure surface which results in the flow blockage. It promotes the strength of the flow field redistribution at the rotor outlet. These flow pattern changes have an effect on the blade loading perturbations. The integration of blade loading perturbation from control volume analysis of the circumferential momentum leads to well-known Alford's force. Alford's force is always negative when the flow blockage effects are excluded. However when the flow blockage effect is incorporated into the modeling, main flow effects on the flow redistribution is also reflected on the Alford's force at the high flow coefficient. Alford's force steeply increases as the flow coefficient increases, because of the tip leakage suppression and strong flow redistribution. The predicted results are well agreed to CFD results by Kang and Kang(2006).