Wind-tunnel simulations of the suburban ABL and comparison with international standards

Abstract

Three wind-tunnel simulations of the atmospheric boundary layer (ABL) flow in suburban country exposure were generated for length scale factors 1:400, 1:250 and 1:220 to investigate scale effects in wind-tunnel simulations of the suburban ABL, to address recommended wind characteristics for suburban exposures reported in international standards, and to test redesigned experimental hardware. Investigated parameters are mean velocity, turbulence intensity, turbulent Reynolds shear stress, integral length scale of turbulence and power spectral density of velocity fluctuations. Experimental results indicate it is possible to reproduce suburban natural winds in the wind tunnel at different length scales without significant influence of the simulation length scale on airflow characteristics. However, in the wind tunnel it was not possible to reproduce two characteristic phenomena observed in full-scale: dependence of integral length scales on reference wind velocity and a linear increase in integral length scales with height. Furthermore, in international standards there is a considerable scatter of recommended values for suburban wind characteristics. In particular, recommended integral length scales in ESDU 85020 (1985) are significantly larger than in other international standards. Truncated vortex generators applied in this study proved to be successful in part-depth suburban ABL wind-tunnel simulation that yield a novel methodology in studies on wind effects on structures and air pollution dispersion.