• Wind and Structures
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• v.3 no.3
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• pp.177-191
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• 2000

This paper presents an approach for evaluating directionality effects for both wind speeds and wind loads in hurricane-prone regions. The focus of this study is on directional wind loads on low-rise structures. Using event-based simulation, hurricane directionality effects are determined for an open-terrain condition at various locations in the southeastern United States. The wind speed (or wind load) directionality factor, defined as the ratio of the N-year mean recurrence interval (MRI) wind speed (or wind load) in each direction to the non-directional N-year MRI wind speed (or wind load), is less than one but increases toward unity with increasing MRI. Thus, the degree of conservatism that results from neglecting directionality effects decreases with increasing MRI. It may be desirable to account for local exposure effects (siting effects such as shielding, orientation, etc.) in design. To account for these effects in a directionality adjustment, the factor described above for open terrain would need to be transformed to other terrains/exposures. A "local" directionality factor, therefore, must effectively combine these two adjustments (event directionality and siting or local exposure directionality). By also considering the direction-specific aerodynamic coefficient, a direction-dependent wind load can be evaluated. While the data necessary to make predictions of directional wind loads may not routinely be available in the case of low-rise structures, the concept is discussed and illustrated in this paper.

• Wind and Structures
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• v.3 no.4
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• pp.255-266
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• 2000

Wind-induced interference effects on a building are the result of one or more adjacent buildings modifying the flow of wind around it, which may result in a significant increase or decrease in wind loads on the building. Wind loading standards and codes of practice offer little guidance to the designer for assessing the effects of interference. Experimental results on interference effects indicate that code recommendations may be significantly low (unsafe) or uneconomically conservative. The paper presents results of an extensive experimental program to study the wind flow mechanisms and to quantify the extent of wind load modifications on buildings due to interference effects. These results have been simplified and presented from the point-of-view of design and codification for the case of two buildings. Based on these results, general guidelines and limiting conditions defining wind interference are formulated and discussed.

• Proceedings of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute Conference
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• 2008.04a
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• pp.402-409
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• 2008

Wind loads and environments in realistic situations surrounded by neighboring buildings may be considerably different from those in idealized or simplified situations such as codes and standards. Interference effects of change in wind passage of a building group on wind loads and wind environments are reviewed. Wind-induced interference effects depend mainly on the building geometry and arrangement of these structures, their orientation and upstream terrain conditions. The most important factor among them may be the arrangement of building structures which can change the wind direction directly. Interference effects regarding wind loads are discussed with examples of window damages by typhoon and of pressure measurements in the boundary layer wind tunnel. Wind environment problems are also discussed, specially underlined on pedestrian comfort and safety. Various evaluation techniques or standards of wind environment are introduced. The change of wind velocity between the panel-type apartment buildings is examined, depending on the distance each other.

• Wind and Structures
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• v.16 no.4
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• pp.393-409
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• 2013

This paper uses ten years of on-site monitoring data for the Confederation Bridge to derive wind loads and investigate whether the bridge has experienced its design wind force effects since its completion in 1997. The load effects derived using loads from the on-site monitoring data are compared to the load effects derived using loads from the 1994 and 2009 wind tunnel aerodynamic model tests. The research shows, for the first time, that the aerodynamic model-based methodology originally developed in 1994 is a very accurate method for deriving wind loads for structural design. The research also confirms that the bridge has not experienced its specified (i.e., unfactored) wind force effects since it was opened to traffic in 1997, even during the most severe event that has occurred during this period.

• Wind and Structures
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• v.25 no.4
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• pp.397-413
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• 2017

When bridges are constructed with lower heights from the ground, the formed channel between the deck and the ground will inevitably hinder or accelerate the air flow. This in turn will have an impact on the aerodynamic forces on the deck, which may result in unexpected wind-induced responses of bridges. This phenomenon can be referred to "ground effects." So far, no systematic studies into ground effects on the wind-induced responses of closed box girders have been performed. In this paper, wind tunnel tests have been adopted to study the ground effects on the aerodynamic force coefficients and the wind-induced responses of a closed box girder. In correlation with the heights from the ground in two ground roughness, the aerodynamic force coefficients, the Strouhal number ($S_t$), the vortex-induced vibration (VIV) lock-in phenomena over a range of wind velocities, the VIV maximum amplitudes, the system torsional damping ratio, the flutter derivatives, the critical flutter wind speeds and their variation laws correlated with the heights from the ground of a closed box girder have been presented through wind tunnel tests. The outcomes show that the ground effects make the vortex-induced phenomena occur in advance and adversely affect the flutter stability.

• Wind and Structures
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• v.38 no.1
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• pp.43-58
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• 2024

To ensure the flutter stability of three-tower suspension bridges under skew wind, by using the computational procedure of 3D refined flutter analysis of long-span bridges under skew wind, in which structural nonlinearity, the static wind action(also known as the aerostatic effect) and the full-mode coupling effect etc., are fully considered, the flutter stability of a three-tower suspension bridge-the Taizhou Bridge over the Yangtze River in completion and during the deck erection is numerically investigated under the constant uniform skew wind, and the influences of skew wind and aerostatic effects on the flutter stability of the bridge under the service and construction conditions are assessed. The results show that the flutter critical wind speeds of three-tower suspension bridge under service and construction conditions fluctuate with the increase of wind yaw angle instead of a monotonous cosine rule as the decomposition method proposed, and reach the minimum mostly in the case of skew wind. Both the skew wind and aerostatic effects significantly reduce the flutter stability of three-tower suspension bridge under the service and construction conditions, and the combined skew wind and aerostatic effects further deteriorate the flutter stability. Both the skew wind and aerostatic effects do not change the evolution of flutter stability of the bridge during the deck erection, and compared to the service condition, they lead to a greater decrease of flutter critical wind speed of the bridge during deck erection, and the influence of the combined skew wind and aerostatic effects is more prominent. Therefore, the skew wind and aerostatic effects must be considered accurately in the flutter analysis of three-tower suspension bridges.

• Journal of Environmental Science International
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• v.18 no.8
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• pp.833-839
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• 2009

The calculation of the wind field for resource assessment is done by using CFD Reynolds-Averaged Navier-Stokes simulations performed with the commercial software WindSim. A new interface has been created to use mesoscale simulation data from a meteorological model as driving data for the simulations. This method makes it necessary to take into account thermal effects on the wind field to exploit the full potential of this method. The procedure for considering thermal effects in CFD wind field simulations as well as the impact of thermal effects on the wind field simulations is presented. Simulations for non-neutral atmospheric conditions with the developed method are consistent with expected behavior and show an improvement of simulation results compared with observations.

• Wind and Structures
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• v.32 no.5
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• pp.423-437
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• 2021

Aerodynamic measures have been widely used for improving the flutter stability of long-span bridges, and this paper focuses their windproof ability to improve the wind environment for vehicles. The whole wind environment around a long-span bridge located in high altitude mountainous areas is first studied. The local wind environment above the deck is then focused by two perspectives. One is the windproof effects of aerodynamic measures, and the other is whether the bridge with aerodynamic measures meets the requirement of flutter stability after installing extra wind barriers in the future. Furthermore, the effects of different wind barriers are analyzed. Results show that aerodynamic measures exert potential effects on the local wind environment, as the vertical stabilizer obviously reduces wind velocities behind it while the closed central slot has limited effects. The suggested aerodynamic measures have the ability to offset the adverse effect of the wind barrier on the flutter stability of the bridge. Behind the wind barrier, wind velocities decrease in general, but in some places incoming flow has to pass through the deck with higher velocities due to the increase in blockage ratio. Further comparison shows that the wind barrier with four bars is optimal.

• Wind and Structures
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• v.24 no.2
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• pp.145-169
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• 2017

The auxiliary structures of a high-rise building, such as balconies, ribs, and grids, are usually much smaller than the whole building; therefore, it is difficult to simulate them on a scaled model during wind tunnel tests, and they are often ignored. However, they may have notable effects on the local or overall wind loads of the building. In the present study, a series of wind pressure wind tunnel tests and high-frequency force balance (HFFB) wind tunnel tests were conducted on rigid models of an actual super high-rise building with vertical ribs protruding from its facades. The effects of the depth and spacing of vertical ribs on the mean values, fluctuating values and the most unfavorable values of the local wind pressure coefficients were investigated by analyzing the distribution of wind pressure coefficients on the facades and the variations of the wind pressure coefficients at the cross section at 2/3 of the building height versus wind direction angle. In addition, the effects of the depth and spacing of vertical ribs on the mean values, fluctuating values and power spectra of the overall aerodynamic force coefficients were studied by analyzing the aerodynamic base moment coefficients. The results show that vertical ribs significantly decrease the most unfavorable suction coefficients in the corner recession regions and edge regions of facades and increase the mean and fluctuating along-wind overall aerodynamic forces.

• Wind and Structures
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• v.31 no.5
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• pp.459-472
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• 2020

This study focused on the non-synoptic, tornado-like wind-induced effects on flexible horizontal structures that are extremely sensitive to winds. More specifically, the nonuniform, intensive vertical wind-velocity and transient natures of tornado events and their effects on the global behavior of a long-span bridge were investigated. In addition to the static part in the modeling of tornado-like wind-induced loads, the motion-induced effects were modeled using the semi-empirical model with a two-dimensional (2-D) indicial response function. Both nonlinear wind-induced static analysis and linear aeroelastic analysis in the time domain were conducted based on a 3-D finite-element model to investigate the bridge performance under the most unfavorable tornado pattern considering wind-structure interactions. The results from the present study highlighted the important effects due to abovementioned tornado natures (i.e., nonuniform, intensive vertical wind-velocity and transient features) on the long-span bridge, and hence may facilitate more appropriate wind design of flexible horizontal structures in the tornado-prone areas.