Investigation of surface pressures on CAARC tall building concerning effects of turbulence

Abstract

This paper presents an experimental investigation on the surface pressures on the CAARC standard tall building model concerning the effects of freestream turbulence. Two groups of incidence turbulence are generated in the wind tunnel experiment. The first group has an approximately constant turbulence intensity of 10.3% but different turbulence integral scale varying from 0.141 m to 0.599 m or from 0.93 to 5.88 in terms of scale ratio (turbulence integral scale to building dimension). The second group presents similar turbulence integral scale but different turbulence intensity ranging from 7.2% to 13.5%. The experimental results show that the mean pressure coefficients on about half of the axial length of the side faces near the leading edge slightly decrease as the turbulence integral scale ratio that is larger than 4.25 increases, but respond markedly to the changes in turbulence intensity. The root-mean-square (RMS) and peak pressure coefficients depend on both turbulence integral scale and intensity. The RMS pressure coefficients increase with turbulence integral scale and intensity. As the turbulence integral scale increases from 0.141 m to 0.599 m, the mean peak pressure coefficient increases by 7%, 20% and 32% at most on the windward, side faces and leeward of the building model, respectively. As the turbulence intensity increases from 7.2% to 13.5%, the mean value of peak pressure coefficient increases by 47%, 69% and 23% at most on windward, side faces and leeward, respectively. The values of cross-correlations of fluctuating pressures increase as the turbulence integral scale increases, but decrease as turbulence intensity increases in most cases.