Wind tunnel study on the morphological parameterization of building non-uniformity

Abstract

Because there is a lack of systematic studies on non-uniform buildings and most of them are qualitative research, this study implemented a morphological parameterization scheme to determine building morphology, which includes the frontal area index (λf), planar area index (λp), shape index (SBC), and integrated non-linear coefficient (R). This scheme can systematically describe the non-uniformity of buildings with high precision. In addition, wind tunnel experiments were carried out to study the effects of the morphologic parameters of buildings on the drag force. A floating experimental platform was designed to measure the drag force of the whole area. The results showed that different levels of terrain roughness have little effect on the drag coefficient. In contrast, the frontal area index is the main factor that affects the drag coefficient when the wind direction changes. The drag coefficient was found to increase with increases in the frontal area index, density index, and shape index as well as decreases in the integrated non-linear coefficient.