Wind-tunnel modeling of wind loads on structures using truncated vortex generators

Abstract

Scaling is a major issue in wind-tunnel modeling of wind loads on structures. One of the important goals is to achieve the simulation length scale as large as possible. To support that effort, the Counihan vortex generators, castellated barrier wall, and surface roughness elements were applied in the present wind-tunnel study to create three urban-type atmospheric boundary layer (ABL) simulations that impinged the respective cubic building models. The focus was on pressure distributions and fluctuations on cubic building models at various simulation length scales. One ABL simulation was created using the truncated Counihan vortex generators, while in other two ABL simulations the standard (non-truncated) Counihan vortex generators were used. The ratio of the ABL simulation thickness to the cubic building model height was ten in each of the three test cases. Flow characteristics and the Jensen number in three ABL simulations were similar. Steady pressure distributions and pressure fluctuations at surfaces of the studied cubic building models compared reasonably well for the three test cases. This indicates that the simulation length scales in wind-tunnel studies focused on wind loads on structures can be larger when the truncated Counihan vortex generators are used for the ABL simulations in comparison with the ABL simulations created using the standard (non-truncated) Counihan vortex generators.