Wind Tunnel Investigation of the Wind Patterns in the Launching Pad Area of the Brazilian Alcântara Launch Center

Amanda Felippe Faria,Ana Cristina Avelar,Gilberto Fisch

doi:10.5028/jatm.v11.996

Abstract

This paper presents a wind tunnel study of the flow patterns in the main Brazilian Space Port, the Alcântara Launch Center (ALC), located in the Northwest region, over an irregular coastal cliff of 40 m height. In the ALC region, constant winds of strong incidence are very common, which can change the characteristics of the atmospheric boundary layer and affect safety conditions during launching operations. This study was conducted using a scaled model of the Launching Pad Area (LPA) in ALC complex with the purpose of getting insights about the wind flow patterns, as zones of strong vorticity, in that region when the wind incidence angle and coastal cliff characteristics change. The experiments were carried out in an aerodynamic wind tunnel, and for this reason it was necessary to use some techniques described in the literature to simulate an atmospheric boundary layer in a short test section wind tunnel. Hot-wire anemometer measurements were carried out for turbulence level evaluation with empty wind tunnel test section, and a two-dimensional Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV) was used for flow field velocity measurements in different confi gurations of wind incidence angle (α), Reynolds number and coastal cliff slope angle (β).

Highlights

Physical phenomena related to wind incidence on buildings are very complex since it is associated to the occurrence of large vortex structures formed from the body shear layer and shed downstream, which distinguishes these flows from those over streamlined bodies (Vatistas et al 1986).In order to get insights about these complex phenomena, it is necessary to investigate the atmospheric flow features over the related territories
ATMOSPHERIC BOUNDARY LAYER SIMULATED IN WIND TUNNEL As the TA-2 is an aeronautic tunnel, with a short boundary layer thickness, a procedure was used for increasing the boundary layer thickness and for simulating the atmospheric boundary layer that typically occurs in Alcântara Launch Center (ALC)
Based on the investigation carried out and the results presented, the following conclusions can be pointed out:

Summary

Introduction

Physical phenomena related to wind incidence on buildings are very complex since it is associated to the occurrence of large vortex structures formed from the body shear layer and shed downstream, which distinguishes these flows from those over streamlined bodies (Vatistas et al 1986). In order to get insights about these complex phenomena, it is necessary to investigate the atmospheric flow features over the related territories. Many researches about wind incidence on constructions, or on bluff bodies, can be found in the literature in the latest 50 years, some of them with the purpose of describing the produced wakes, like Woo et al (1977), Griffin (1985), Baskaran and Kashef (1996) and Meneghini et al (2010). The turbulence in wakes of buildings was investigated with the purpose of guaranteeing the operational safety of aircrafts at airfields, which are very vulnerable to turbulence and quick changes in wind speed.

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Conclusion