The Silsoe Structures Building: Comparisons of pressures measured at full scale and in two wind tunnels

Abstract

Two independent sets of full-scale wind pressure measurements have been completed on the Silsoe Structures Building in both its configurations (featuring a conventional sharp eaves and a modern curved eaves). Results are compared with those from two 1 : 100 scale measurement programmes conducted in two leading wind tunnels on models of the building with both the sharp and curved eaves. These comparisons highlight the importance of implementing certain wind tunnel procedures in order to obtain good predictions of full-scale mean pressure coefficients. However, areas of high negative pressure still tend to be under-estimated in wind-tunnel measurements and this is considered to be associated with a Reynolds number effect.