• Wind and Structures
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• v.9 no.6
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• pp.473-492
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• 2006

This paper presents numerical results of pedestrian-level wind environment around the base of a row of tall buildings by CFD. Four configurations of building arrangement are computed including a single square tall building. Computed results of pedestrian-level wind flow patterns and wind speeds are compared to previous wind tunnel measurement data to enable an assessment of CFD predictions. The CFD model uses the finite-volume method with RNG $k-{\varepsilon}$ model for turbulence closure. It is found that the numerical results can reproduce key features of pedestrian-level wind environment such as corner streams around corners of upwind building, sheltered zones behind buildings and channeled high-speed flow through a building gap. However, there are some differences between CFD results and wind tunnel data in the wind speed distribution and locations of highest wind speeds inside the corner streams. In locations of high ground-level wind speeds, CFD values match wind tunnel data within ${\pm}10%$.

• Wind and Structures
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• v.30 no.3
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• pp.317-323
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• 2020

A novel approach is presented to improve dynamic responses of a pedestrian bridge by utilizing decorative wind chimes. Through wind tunnel tests, it was verified that wind chimes can provide stabilization effects against flutter instability, especially at positive or negative wind angles of attack. At zero degrees of angle of attack, the wind chimes can change the flutter pattern from rapid divergence to gradual divergence. The decorative wind chimes can also provide damping effects to suppress the lateral sway motion of the bridge caused by pedestrian footfalls and wind forces. For this purpose, the swing frequency of the wind chimes should be about the same as the structural frequency, which can be achieved by adjusting the swing length of the wind chimes. The mass and the swing damping level are other two important and mutually interactive parameters in addition to the swing length. In general, 3% to 5% swing damping is necessary to achieve favorite results. In the study case, the equivalent damping level of the entire system can be increased from originally assumed 1% up to 5% by using optimized wind chimes.

• International Journal of High-Rise Buildings
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• v.11 no.4
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• pp.301-314
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• 2022

Various studies have been conducted on pedestrian-level wind environments around buildings. With regard to the speed-up mechanism of pedestrian-level winds, there are references to downwash effect due to the vertical pressure gradient of boundary layer flow and venturi effect due to flow blocking by the building. Two factors contribute to increase or decrease of downwash effect: change in twodimensional / three-dimensional air flow pattern (Type 1) and change in downwash wind speed due to building size that does not accompany change in airflow pattern (Type 2). Previous studies have shown that downwash effect has a greater influence in increasing or decreasing the area of strong wind than venturi effect. However, these considerations are derived from the horizontal mean wind speed distribution at pedestrian level and are not the result of three-dimensional flow field around the building. Therefore, in this study, Computational Fluid Dynamics using Large Eddy Simulation were performed to verify the downwash phenomena that contributes to increase in wind speed at pedestrian level.

• International Journal of High-Rise Buildings
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• v.11 no.4
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• pp.315-320
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• 2022

With the rapid development of urbanization the problems of pedestrian-level wind comfort and natural ventilation of tall buildings are becoming increasingly prominent. The velocity at the pedestrian level ($\overline{MVR}$) and variation of wind pressure coefficients $\overline{{\Delta}C_p}$ between windward and leeward surfaces of tall buildings were investigated systematically through numerical simulations. The examined parameters included building density ρ, height ratio of building α_H, width ratio of building α_B, and wind direction θ. The linear and quadratic regression analyses of $\overline{MVR}$ and $\overline{{\Delta}C_p}$ were conducted. The quadratic regression had better performance in predicting $\overline{MVR}$ and $\overline{{\Delta}C_p}$ than the linear regression. $\overline{MVR}$ and $\overline{{\Delta}C_p}$ were optimized by the NSGA-II algorithm. The LINMAP and TOPSIS decision-making methods demonstrated better capability than the Shannon's entropy approach. The final optimal design parameters of buildings were ρ = 20%, α_H = 4.5, and α_B = 1, and the wind direction was θ = 10°. The proposed method could be used for the optimization of pedestrian-level wind comfort and natural ventilation in a residential area.

• Wind and Structures
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• v.5 no.2_3_4
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• pp.151-164
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• 2002

Predictions of the pedestrian level wind speeds for the downtown area of Auckland that have been obtained by wind tunnel and computational fluid dynamic (CFD) modelling are presented. The wind tunnel method involves the observation of erosion patterns as the wind speed is progressively increased. The computational solutions are mean flow calculations, which were obtained by using the finite volume code PHOENICS and the $k-{\varepsilon}$ turbulence model. The results for a variety of wind directions are compared, and it is observed that while the patterns are similar there are noticeable differences. A possible explanation for these differences arises because the tunnel prediction technique is sensitivity to gust wind speeds while the CFD method predicts mean wind speeds. It is shown that in many cases the computational model indicates high mean wind speeds near the corner of a building while the erosion patterns are consistent with eddies being shed from the edge of the building and swept downstream.

• Journal of the Korean Solar Energy Society
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• v.32 no.spc3
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• pp.185-193
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• 2012

Recently rapid urbanization facilitates development of high-rise building complex including apartment and office building in urban area. Many problems related with high -rise building are reported. Especially, unpleasant strong winds in pedestrian area are frequently encountered around the high-rise building. CFD simulation methods are used to analyze the wind environment of pedestrian level in high-rise building block. However, the results show differences between CFD and measurement. This difference is attributed to improper use of CFD. Conventional CFD simulation for wind environment around high-rise building does not describe the effect of trees, shrubs and plants near ground which affect the wind environment of pedestrian level. Canopy model can be used to reproduce the aerodynamic effects of trees, shrubs and plants near ground. In this paper, CFD simulation methods coupled with the tree canopy model to predict wind environment of pedestrian level in high-rise residential building block were suggested and the validity was analyzed by comparison between measurement and CFD results.

• Wind and Structures
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• v.9 no.2
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• pp.147-158
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• 2006

The purpose of this paper is to find a more accurate method to evaluate pedestrian wind by computational fluid dynamics approach. Previous computational fluid dynamics studies of wind environmental problems were mostly performed by simplified models, which only use simple geometric shapes, such as cubes and cylinders, to represent buildings and structures. However, to have more accurate and complete evaluation results, various shapes of blocking objects, such as trees, should also be taken into consideration. The aerodynamic effects of these various shapes of objects can decrease wind velocity and increase turbulence intensity. Previous studies simply omitted the errors generated from these various shapes of blocking objects. Adding real geometrical trees to the numerical models makes the calculating domain of CFD very complicated due to geometry generation and grid meshing problems. In this case the function of Porous Media Condition can solve the problem by adding trees into numerical models without increasing the mesh grids. The comparison results between numerical and wind tunnel model are close if the parameters of porous media condition are well adjusted.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Building Construction Conference
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• 2023.05a
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• pp.231-232
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• 2023

With taller buildings and larger typhoons, the impact of building winds is growing. During the 11th Typhoon Hinnamno in 2022, the building wind in Busan L City exceeded 60m/s, reaching the highest speed ever. Although many studies have been conducted on reducing the wind load of buildings, which is one of the problem factors caused by strong wind speed, there is a lack of research on wind speed reducing sculptures that can directly control strong wind speed. In this paper, several types of wind speed reduction sculptures were proposed to solve these problems, and the wind speed reduction capability of the proposed sculptures was analyzed through computational fluid dynamics (CFD). These results can contribute to suggesting effective design methods for improving the urban environment and reducing pedestrian stress.

• 한국태양에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2012.03a
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• pp.345-353
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• 2012

Recently rapid urbanization facilitates development of high-rise building complex including apartment and office building in urban area. Many problems related with high-rise building are reported. Especially, unpleasant strong winds in pedestrian area are frequently encountered around the high-rise building. CFD simulation methods are used to analyze the wind environment of pedestrian level in high-rise building block. However the results show differences between CFD and measurement. The reason for the difference is that conventional CFD simulation couldn't consider the effect of trees, shrubs and plants which affect the wind environment. Canopy model is a solution to solve the limitation of CFD analysis. In this paper, the canopy model to predict wind environment of pedestrian level by CFD simulation will be proposed and the validity will be analyzed by comparison of measurement and CFD prediction.

• Wind and Structures
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.51-70
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• 2008

CFD is applied to evaluate pedestrian wind comfort at outdoor platforms in a high-rise apartment building. Model validation is focused on generic building sub-configurations that are obtained by decomposition of the actual complex building geometry. The comfort study is performed during the design stage, which allows structural design changes to be made for wind comfort improvement. Preliminary simulations are performed to determine the effect of different design modifications. A full wind comfort assessment study is conducted for the final design. Structural remedial measures for this building, aimed at reducing pressure short-circuiting, appear to be successful in bringing the discomfort probability estimates down to acceptable levels. Finally, the importance of one of the main sources of uncertainty in this type of wind comfort studies is illustrated. It is shown that the uncertainty about the terrain roughness classification can strongly influence the outcome of wind comfort studies and can lead to wrong decisions. This problem is present to the same extent in both wind tunnel and CFD wind comfort studies when applying the same particular procedure for terrain relation contributions as used in this paper.