On differences and similarities of applied wind comfort criteria

This paper presents the comparison of different wind comfort criteria presently used at European wind engineering institutions. In the framework of the European COST Action C14, Working Group 1 has gathered various wind comfort criteria with the purpose of discussing the present state-of-the-art, identifying differences, and initiating a common criterion or code of good practice. The paper focuses on the comparison of comfort criteria. In the last three decades, various comparative studies have been performed on the same topic and this paper puts the gathered information in context to earlier works. The comparison reveals a change occurred in the conceptual design of the different criteria over the last decade. The study distinguishes between two groups of criteria; first those using the hourly mean wind speed as the relevant parameter to assess human wind comfort, and secondly those criteria based on gust wind speeds. Regarding criteria based on hourly mean wind speeds, the comparison allows for the identification of relationships between the different comfort approaches and was used to propose a more general formulation. The comfort criteria using gust wind speeds prove to be more complex in design and application. The main difficulties in the application could be identified through theoretical comparison and through a case study. Possible improvements are discussed. The paper is intended to give information about the spectrum of presently used methods to assess wind comfort in urban environments, and to identify the differences and similarities. Suggestions concerning a possible future code of good practice are made.