The Aylesbury experiment. Comparison of model and full-scale tests

Abstract

The full-scale experiments carried out in the years 1972–1974 by the Building Research Establishment on a specially designed test house in Aylesbury, England, are a unique investigation as regards wind pressures on low-rise buildings. The experiments have been followed up by wind-tunnel investigations all around the world. The wind-tunnel test results are collected at the Building Research Establishment to constitute a comprehensive data base suitable for the comparisons between full-scale and model-scale wind pressures on low-rise buildings, and for the study of differences between the various experimental techniques in current use and the uncertainties inherent in measurement and modelling. The paper describes the Aylesbury experiment carried out at the Danish Maritime Institute. The simulation of the standard rural terrain and the Aylesbury terrain was achieved by means of the spire-roughness technique. The pressure measurements obtained have been compared both with the full-scale data, and with wind-tunnel data from the University of Oxford in England and the University of Western Ontario in Canada. The comparisons include mean values, standard deviations, 2-s gusts and pressure spectra. There are some unexplained differences between pressures measured under apparently similar wind conditions in different full-scale runs, which inevitably limit the agreement that can be achieved between full-scale and wind-tunnel tests. The correlation between the results from the above-mentioned three wind-tunnel laboratories is much better than the correlation between the wind-tunnel test results and the results from full-scale measurements.