Concentration and flow distributions in urban street canyons: wind tunnel and computational data

The goal of this paper is to present bluff body flow and transport from steady point sources of pollutants, or chemical and biological agents in an idealized urban environment This paper includes ventilation behavior in different street canyon configurations. To evaluate dispersion in a model urban street canyon, a series of tests with various street canyon aspect ratios (B/H) are presented. Both open-country roughness and urban roughness cases are considered. The flow and dispersion of gases emitted by a point source located between two buildings inside an urban street canyon were determined by the prognostic model FLUENT using four different RANS turbulent closure approximations and in the model fire dynamics simulator using a large eddy simulation methodology. Calculations are compared against fluid modeling in the Industrial Meteorological Wind Tunnel at Colorado State University. A basic building shape, the Wind Engineering Research Field Laboratory building (WERFL) at Texas Tech University, was used for this study. The urban street canyon was represented by a 1:50 scale WERFL model surrounded by models of similar dimensions. These buildings were arranged in various symmetric configurations with different separation distances and different numbers of up- or downwind buildings. Measurements and calculations reveal the dispersion of gases within the urban environment are essentially unsteady, and they are not always well predicted by the use of steady-state prediction methodologies.     

Experimental investigations of the indoor natural ventilation for different building configurations and incidences

This paper presents an experimental investigation of the indoor natural ventilation in terms of wind pressures on the surfaces of cubic buildings of a street located within a high density urban area. Wind tunnel tests over 1:100 scale models for four typical building patterns of a highly populated urban area have been carried out. The variables of the experiments were the building configurations and the incident wind direction. The experimental data are presented in terms of wind pressure coefficient measured on the surfaces of the buildings. The study results gave the evidence that buildings configuration and wind direction are very important factors in determining the induced natural ventilation within urban domains since they characteristically influence the flow yielding differences in wind pressures.     

Interference effects on local peak pressures between two buildings

Local peak pressure coefficients between two buildings were studied by using wind tunnel experiments for various locations, different height ratios of interfering building and wind directions. The measured local peak pressure coefficients were compared to those obtained previously from a study on an isolated building. This study also investigated interference effects for local peak pressures on a principal building with various configurations and different height ratios of an interfering building. The experimental results have been examined and presented from the viewpoint of cladding design. The results show that highest peak suctions on a principal building increased with increase in height ratios of the interfering building. The oblique configuration generated more severe peak suction than the tandem configuration. To examine the interference effects for local peak pressures in detail, interference factors for maximum positive and minimum negative peak pressures at each measurement point (i, j) of the principal building for all wind directions are presented and discussed.     

超高层建筑风致响应及等效静力风荷载研究

以重庆宾馆为工程背景,制作了缩尺比为1∶300的试验模型,并进行了刚性模型同步测压风洞试验,采集了重庆宾馆建筑表面的脉动风压时程。风洞试验包括有周边建筑和无周边建筑两类工况。采用风洞试验的脉动风压时程数据,考虑该高层建筑2个主轴方向的前4阶弯曲模态,进行了其风致响应研究,得到了建筑顶部的位移响应和加速度响应,并进行了人体舒适度验算。采用惯性风荷载法,研究了建筑主轴方向的等效静力风荷载。结果表明:对于高度为300m的混凝土高层建筑,仅考虑1阶模态进行风致响应分析,位移响应能满足工程精度的要求,但加速度响应误差较大,至少应考虑前4阶模态;重庆宾馆10年重现期下建筑顶部的峰值加速度为0.144m/s2,满足舒适度限制要求;横风向平均风荷载较小,但惯性风荷载较大。     

复杂体型大跨屋盖风荷载特性的风洞试验研究

通过对吉林火车站的刚性模型风洞试验研究,得到了在有无周边建筑群干扰下屋盖表面的风压系数等值线图、脉动风压系数与屋盖的升力系数随风向角的变化曲线,对其风压分布特性做了详细的对比分析研究。研究结果表明:大跨屋盖结构表面主要呈现负风压(风吸力),屋盖合力升力系数均为负值。主站楼在迎风区屋檐、悬挑区域及屋面凸起的天窗位置气流分离较大,风压变化明显,出现较大的负风压系数;由于站台雨篷四周开敞,气流流经站台雨篷时较为顺畅,气流分离较小,因而站台雨篷风压系数较小。     

Wind loads on attached canopies and their effect on the pressure distribution over arch-roof industrial buildings

Arch-roof industrial buildings are very wind sensitive. The current aerodynamic coefficients in wind codes do not contemplate the possibility of existence of canopies attached to the buildings. This paper presents the results of an investigation on the influence exerted by canopies on the static wind actions on arch-roof industrial buildings. Six scale models of these arch-roof buildings were tested, with five types of canopies attached. Three of these canopies were instrumented and the static wind pressures were measured. The tests were done at the boundary layer wind tunnel of the Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul. The results show that the aerodynamic coefficients for the roof are not affected by the canopies, in the case of axial incidence. However, the influence on the pressure distribution is noticeable for wind incidence perpendicular to the main axis of the arch roofs and for other incidences as well. This influence is discussed in the paper. The aerodynamic coefficients for the design of the arch-roofs, with and without the attached canopies are given. Aerodynamic coefficients for design of the canopies are also suggested. Furthermore, the paper discusses the relation between the magnitude of the canopy design forces and the canopy width, as well as the relation between the canopy height location and the height of the building wall. The results were compared with design recommendations from previous work of Jancauskas and Holmes (in: US National Conference on Wind Engineering, Proceedings, Texas Tech University, Lubbock, 1985) and Jancauskas and Eddleston (in: International Conference on Wind Engineering, Fotodruck J. Mainz, Aachen, 1987).     

Wind-tunnel investigation of point pressure on TTU test building

External point pressures at mid-plane and roof corner locations, measured during a wind tunnel study of a 1: 50 geometrical scale model of the TTU test building, are reported in the paper. The mid-plane laboratory pressures are compared with field and numerical results. The agreement/discrepancy between the compared results is discussed. The roof corner pressures acquired for a wider than previously reported range of the wind azimuth are presented and compared with the available field results. Type I and III extreme value distributions (EVDs) are fitted to peak suctions acquired at four locations in a roof corner region. For the mid-plane locations, a very good agreement between the model and full-scale pressures is attributed to a close matching of the laboratory and field approach flows. The laboratory-field comparison of the roof corner pressures revealed trends observed in previously reported investigations. The extreme value analysis showed that the field peak pressures in this region were bounded by the laboratory peak pressures (the lower bound) and by the asymptotic limit of the type III EVD fit of the laboratory peaks (the upper bound). Rapid convergence and other attributes make type I EVD a fit of choice for the reported extreme wind pressures.     

Frequency response requirements for fluctuating wind pressure measurements

The frequency response requirements for measuring fluctuating wind pressures were examined by analysing full scale data collected at the Texas Tech Wind Engineering Field Research Laboratory It was found that mean peak pressures adjacent to separation and reattachment points were attenuated when the instrumentation frequency response was below 10 Hz for mean wind speeds of 10 m/s. This corresponds to a full scale wavelength of 1 m. For pressures away from these regions and for area-averaged pressures, the cut-off wavelength was higher. A reasonable collapse of the available data for response ratios under separated flow was obtained indicating that attenuation of mean peak pressures could be expected for V/n_cB>0.1 (mean reference velocity V, cut-off frequency n_c and smallest building plan dimennsion B). These findings have implications for the frequency response of wind tunnel model studies investigating peak pressure distributions.     

The UWO contribution to the NIST aerodynamic database for wind loads on low buildings: Part 1. Archiving format and basic aerodynamic data

Wind tunnel testing of generic low building models has been carried out at the University of Western Ontario (UWO) in support of an initiative by Texas Tech University (TTU) and the United States National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) to create an aerodynamic database for low building design. This paper describes the background of the project, the basic models, testing configurations, the wind simulation, the standard archival format for distribution of the data, and a basic analysis of the data. Part 2 presents a detailed comparison of the data with existing wind load provisions in building codes.Basic quality checks of the data are made via limited comparisons among the data obtained during this study. Parametric comparisons based on roof slope, building height and building plan dimension show that the data obtained within this study are consistent with the expected aerodynamic behaviour. Comparisons with full scale TTU data show that the wind tunnel tests match the full-scale reasonably well, but cannot reproduce the largest of the peak point suctions near roof edges.     

吉林火车站屋盖结构风荷载特性的试验研究

通过对吉林火车站的刚性模型风洞试验研究,得到在有无周边建筑群干扰下屋盖表面的平均风压系数、脉动风压系数以及屋盖的升力系数分布特性,同时对屋盖局部体型系数及结构风振响应进行详细的对比分析研究。研究结果表明:火车站屋盖结构表面主要呈现负风压(风吸力),屋盖合力升力系数均为负值。主站楼在迎风区屋檐、悬挑区域及屋面凸起的天窗位置气流分离较大,风压变化明显,出现较大的负风压系数;由于站台雨篷四周开敞,气流流经站台雨篷时较为顺畅,气流分离较小,因而站台雨篷风压系数较小。周边的干扰建筑整体上对屋面全风向局部体型系数有一定的遮挡效应,但也不能忽略部分区域增大的情况;周边建筑群对站台雨篷角部、主站楼凸起的天窗及东西两侧悬挑屋面区域风振响应影响较大。     

Interference effects on wind loading of a row of closely spaced tall buildings

Interference effects on a row of square-plan tall buildings arranged in close proximity are investigated with wind tunnel experiments. Wind forces and moments on each building in the row are measured with the base balance under different wind incidence angles and different separation distances between buildings. As a result of sheltering, inner buildings inside the row are found to experience much reduced wind load components acting along direction of the row (x) at most wind angles, as compared to the isolated building situation. However, these load components may exhibit phenomena of upwind-acting force and even negative drag force. Increase in x-direction wind loads is observed on the upwind edge building when wind blows at an oblique angle to the row. Other interference effects on y-direction wind loads and torsion are described. Pressure measurements on building walls and numerical computation of wind flow are carried out at some flow cases to explore the interference mechanisms. At wind angle around 30° to the row, wind is visualized to flow through the narrow building gaps at high speeds, resulting in highly negative pressure on associated building walls. This negative pressure and the single-wake behavior of flow over the row of buildings provide explanations for the observed interference effects. Interference on fluctuating wind loads is also investigated. Across-wind load fluctuations are much smaller than the isolated building case with the disappearance of vortex shedding peak in the load spectra. Buildings in a row thus do not exhibit resonant across-wind response at reduced velocities around 10 as an isolated square-plan tall building.     

The UWO contribution to the NIST aerodynamic database for wind loads on low buildings: Part 3. Internal pressures

Wind tunnel tests of generic low buildings have been conducted at the University of Western Ontario for contribution to the National Institute on Standards and Technology (NIST) aerodynamic database. Part 1 provided the archiving format and basic aerodynamic data. In Part 2, the data of external pressures were compared with existing wind load provisions for low buildings. This paper, Part 3, deals with an investigation of wind-induced internal pressures of low-rise buildings with realistic dominant opening and leakage scenarios. Data from one building model with four different opening sizes were compared with numerical simulations. The existing theory, using the unsteady orifice discharge equation, works well for the building models used in this study, given the external pressures near the openings, irrespective of shifts of wind direction and upstream terrain. Numerical simulations can capture the temporal variations of the internal pressure fluctuations, as well as mean values.The internal pressure fluctuations for the building with leakage (nominally sealed building) are attenuated as they pass through the openings, while mean values are consistent with spatially averaged external pressures. Internal pressure resonance occurs for the dominant opening (3.3% open ratio) with building leakage. Effects of oblique wind angles on internal pressure dynamics are not significant, at least for the openings in the centre of wall, as is the case herein. Peak internal pressures occur for a wind direction normal to the wall with a dominant opening. Measured internal pressure coefficients are compared with current wind load provisions. Some peak values were found to exceed the recommended design values for the dominant windward wall opening cases.     

Theoretically estimated peak wind loads

Current estimation of peak pressure coefficients and peak wind loads on structures in the ASCE 7 Standard [American Society of Civil Engineers, ASCE Standard, Minimum Design Loads for Buildings and Structures, ASCE 7-02, ASCE, Reston, VA, USA, 2002] is based on the assumption that they are distributed normally. However, this assumption is erroneous in the case of low-rise structures because the time varying pressures and loads along roof edges and ridges have been observed to be generally non-Gaussian [H.W. Tieleman, Z. Ge, M.R. Hajj, T.A. Reinhold, Pressures on a surface-mounted rectangular prism under varying incident turbulence, J. Wind Eng. Ind. Aerodyn. 91 (2003) 1095-1115]. In this article, a new procedure is used to evaluate from one individual non-Gaussian sample record statistics of peak pressure or peak load coefficients. The initial step for the analysis requires the identification and evaluation of the appropriate marginal probability distribution. The results reveal that the distribution of the time histories of surface pressure and load coefficients is well represented by the gamma distribution, whose parameters can be adequately evaluated from the theoretical moment estimators. The corresponding distribution of the peaks of the sample records that represents either the pressure coefficients or the load coefficients, can then be obtained using a standard translation process approach. This information yields the mean and the standard deviation of the sample peaks, which are then used to determine the extreme coefficients associated at any selected probability level of non-exceedence. This latter step can be made by assuming that the distribution of the peaks follows the Extreme Value Type I (Gumbel) distribution. The analysis is applied to pressure measurements on the 1:50 scale model of the experimental building at the Wind Engineering Research Field Laboratory (WERFL), and executed in the Clemson boundary-layer wind tunnel over a range of incident turbulence intensities.     

单个周边建筑对工业厂房屋面平均风压的气动干扰效应

工业厂房通常处于工业厂区内,受周边建筑的干扰,其表面风压分布与单个独立厂房不同,相邻建筑会对风荷载产生影响。基于单个厂房与两个串列厂房刚性模型风洞试验,给出了不同工况下屋面的平均风压,分析了屋盖横向、纵向端部与中部测点的平均风压分布规律,对比了不同串列距离条件下受扰厂房与独立厂房屋盖表面平均风压分布,探讨了平均风压系数干扰因子随风向角及干扰距离的变化规律。试验结果表明：不同风向角时,干扰效应截然不同;干扰效应存在临界风向角。临界风向角一般保持在 30°~50°范围内,小于临界风向角时,干扰起放大效应;大于临界风向角时,干扰为遮挡效应。此外,运用最小二乘法拟合了干扰因子设计值实用计算式,为受扰厂房建筑屋盖表面风压的修正提供依据。     

计算流体动力学在高层建筑风荷载研究中的现状与展望

伴随着计算机速度的迅速提高、离散化方法的发展、网格生成技术的提高、力学模型与数学模型的发展,计算流体动力学(CFD computational Fluid Dynamics)在过去数十年获得了飞速的发展。同时,计算流体动力学在建筑风工程领域也得到了广泛的应用和发展。特别是在高层、超高层或复杂体型的建筑结构设计及建筑风环境舒适度评估中,计算流体动力学更逐渐成为一种不可或缺的有效工具。针对计算流体动力学在高层建筑风荷载研究中的应用,分别就几何模型的建立及网格的划分、边界条件的设定、湍流模型的选择、近壁面的处理等关键环节展开讨论,提出了具有一定实际应用价值的意见和建议。     

An experimental investigation of the wind environment and air quality within a densely populated urban street canyon

This paper presents an experimental investigation of wind flow characteristics and air quality along a street canyon located within a dense urban area. Four typical models of a highly populated urban area are studied and wind tunnel experiments are carried out over an extended range of the applied wind directions. The building patterns are represented by 1:100 scale models, where wind velocity and tracer gas concentrations are measured along the two sides of the street. The study results provide evidence that building configurations and wind directions are very important factors in determining both wind flow and pollutant dispersion characteristics within urban domains. Also, the results demonstrate that gaps between buildings are a very important factor to be considered by urban planners and designers, because, for a given building height, larger gaps induce more wind in urban canyons, thus improving the ventilation process.     

Wind-induced loading and dynamic responses of a row of tall buildings under strong interference

This paper studies wind-induced interference effects on a row of five square-plan tall buildings arranged in close proximity. Mean and fluctuating wind loads are measured on each building member and wind-induced dynamic responses of the building are estimated with the high-frequency force-balance technique. The modifications of building responses from interference over a practical range of reduced velocities are represented by an envelope interference factor. Wind tunnel experiments and response analysis are carried out under all possible angles of wind incidence, at four different building separation distances, and for two arrangement patterns of buildings in the row, that is the parallel and diamond patterns. It is found that building interference leads to amplified dynamic responses in many cases but reduction in responses also occurs at some wind incidence. For a building row of the parallel pattern, five distinct wind incidence sectors of different levels and mechanisms of interference effect can be identified. The largest values of envelope interference factors can reach 2.4 for the torsional responses. When the row of tall buildings is arranged in the diamond pattern, increase in wind excitation occurs at many wind angles due to a “wind catchment” effect. The interference factors have larger peak values, reaching 2.1 in the sway directions and above 4 in torsion. However, all large amplifications of building responses do not occur in the situations of peak resonant dynamic responses of the single isolated building. Thus, the design values of peak dynamic responses of a tall building are not significantly magnified when placed in a row.     

Experimental and numerical studies of flows through and within high-rise building arrays and their link to ventilation strategy

Urban ventilation implies that wind from rural areas may supply relatively clean air into urban canopies and distribute rural air within them to help air exchange and pollutant dilution. This paper experimentally and numerically studied such flows through high-rise square building arrays as the approaching rural wind is parallel to the main streets. The street aspect ratio (building height/street width, H/W) is from 2 to 5.3 and the building area (or packing) density (λ_p) is 0.25 or 0.4. Wind speed is found to decrease quickly through high-rise building arrays. For neighbourhood-scale building arrays (1-2 km at full scale), the velocity may stop decreasing near leeward street entries due to vertical downward mixing induced by the wake. Strong shear layer exists near canopy roof levels producing three-dimensional (3D) vortexes in the secondary streets and considerable air exchanges across the boundaries with their surroundings. Building height variations may destroy or deviate 3D canyon vortexes and induced downward mean flow in front of taller buildings and upward flow behind taller buildings. With a power-law approaching wind profile, taller building arrays capture more rural air and experience a stronger wind within the urban canopy if the total street length is effectively limited. Wider streets (or smaller λ_p), and suitable arrangements of building height variations may be good choices to improve the ventilation in high-rise urban areas.     

Impact of wedge-shaped roofs on airflow and pollutant dispersion inside urban street canyons

The objective of this study is to investigate numerically the effect of wedge-shaped roofs on wind flow and pollutant dispersion in a street canyon within an urban environment. A two-dimensional computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model for evaluating airflow and pollutant dispersion within an urban street canyon is firstly developed using the FLUENT code, and then validated against the wind tunnel experiment. It was found that the model performance is satisfactory. Having established this, the wind flow and pollutant dispersion in urban street canyons of sixteen different wedge-shaped roof combinations are simulated. The computed velocity fields and concentration contours indicate that the in-canyon vortex dynamics and pollutant distriburtion are strongly dependent on the wedge-shaped roof configurations: (1) the height of a wedge-shaped roof peak is a crucial parameter determining the in-canyon vortex structure when an upward wedge-shaped roof is placed on the upwind building of a canyon; (2) both the heights of upstream and downstream corners of the upwind building have a significant impact on the in-canyon vortical flow when a downward wedge-shaped roof is placed on the upwind building of a canyon, due to flow separation as wind passes through the roof peak; (3) the height of upstream corner of the downwind building is an important factor deciding the in-canyon flow pattern when a wedge-shaped roof is placed on the downwind building of a canyon; (4) the characteristics of pollutant dispersion vary for different wedge-shaped roof configurations, and pollution levels are much higher in the “step-down” canyons relative to the “even” and “step-up” ones.     

Wind tunnel simulation studies on dispersion at urban street canyons and intersections—a review

Increased traffic emissions and reduced natural ventilation cause build up of high pollution levels in urban street canyons/intersections. Natural ventilation in urban streets canyons/intersections is restricted because the bulk of flow does not enter inside and pollutants are trapped in the lower region. Wind vortices, low-pressure zones and channeling effects may cause build up of pollutants under adverse meteorological conditions within urban street canyons. The review provides a comprehensive literature on wind tunnel simulation studies in urban street canyons/intersections including the effects of building configurations, canyon geometries, traffic induced turbulence and variable approaching wind directions on flow fields and exhaust dispersion.