Numerical Study of Wind induced Pressures on Irregular Plan Shapes

Abstract

Purpose: This paper presents the numerical examination of wind pressure distributions on irregular plan shape building models over wind incidence angles of 0° and 180°. The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of irregular building form, projection ratios, distances from the re-entrant corner, the building height and wind incidence angles on the wind flow and wind pressure distributions at all surfaces of the buildings.Design/Methodology/Approach: Two L-shaped and two T-shaped building models having the same plan area and height but having different projections in plan were analyzed by the application of Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) package of ANSYS. With this purpose, wind pressure distributions on and around various irregular plan shaped buildings are analysed for the same height level.Findings: As a result of the studies, it has been observed that the plan shape, projection ratios, distances from the re-entrant corner, significantly affect the wind characteristics on building.Research Limitations: In recent years, numerical approaches based on computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations are being commonly used engineers and architects for various wind studies such as determining wind loads on buildings and investigating wind flows in built area. Model dimensions were reduced to 1/100 scale to save computing time.Practical Implications: Understanding the behavior of the building under the wind load will increase the solution oriented approach to the problems at the initial part of the design stage.Social Implications: The study supports occupant comfort by making it easier to perceive the design component wind in the architectural sense.Originality/Value: Wind is a significant architectural design component. However, there are very few studies on wind behavior of buildings in the architectural field. This is often observed as an engineering problem. On the contrary, it is primarily an architectural design piece to be perceived. Therefore, understanding the behavior of buildings under wind loads is vital to develop problem-oriented solutions at every stage of the design phase. Projections in plan with different wind angle and distances from the re-entrant corner’s effect on pressure coefficients were not be studied comprehensively. Key Words: Building form, building dimensions, projections, mean wind pressure coefficient, computational fluid dynamics (CFD