Abstract
The nonuniform distribution of snow around structures with holes is extremely unfavorable for structural safety, and the mechanism of wind‐snow interaction between adjacent structures with holes needs to be explored. Therefore, a wind tunnel simulation was performed, in which quartz particles with an average particle size of 0.14 mm as snow particles were used, and cubes with dimensions of 100 mm × 100 mm × 100 mm each containing a hole with the size of 20 mm × 20 mm were employed as structures. Firstly, the quality of a small low‐speed wind tunnel flow field was tested, and then the effects of hole orientation (hole located on the windward side, leeward side, and other vertical sides) and absence of holes on the surface of a single cube were studied. Furthermore, the effects of different hole locations (respectant position, opposite position, and dislocation) and relative spacing (50 mm, 100 mm, and 150 mm) on the surfaces of two cubes and the snow distribution around them were investigated. It was concluded that the presence and location of hole had a great influence on snow distribution around cubes. Snow distribution was favorable when hole was located on the other vertical sides of the test specimen. The most unfavorable snow distribution was obtained when the holes on the two‐holed sides of the cubes were respectant with a maximum snow depth coefficient of 1.4. A significant difference was observed in the snow depths of two sides of cubes when holes were dislocated. When two holes were respectant, surrounding snow depth was decreased, and the maximum snow depth on model surface area was increased with the increase of spacing. Wind tunnel tests on holed cubes provided a reference for the prediction of snow load distribution of typical structures with holes.
Highlights
In recent years, a large number of buildings with unique shapes and novel structures have appeared in cities
Wind tunnel tests were carried out on cubic samples to investigate snow distribution patterns considering the orientations of holed structures as well as relative positions and spacings of two-holed structures. e following conclusions were drawn: (1) In the case of a small low-speed wind tunnel which satisfied Reynolds number and ignored Froude number, a difference between the measured and tested minimum values of snow depth coefficient along the central axis of the windward side of the cube was observed. e snow depth coefficients of the leeward side were different but their changing trends were similar
It is believed that the small low-speed wind tunnel could be applied for wind tunnel tests of wind-induced snow distribution
Summary
A large number of buildings with unique shapes and novel structures have appeared in cities. As a manner of architectural expression, setting up holes on external walls have widely been used by many designers, like those observed in Church on the Water, Shanghai Poly Grand eater, Langxiang Church, and Yinhe SOHO. E main structure of Shanghai Poly Grand eater is 100 m × 100 m × 35 m in dimensions, with 5 curved holes on external walls. Wind tunnel test is considered as one of the most reliable methods in studying wind-induced snow drifting. Several researchers around the world have conducted a series of studies considering similar main parameters [1,2,3,4] such as rough height Reynolds and Froude numbers [1, 5, 6], time scale [7], and other parameters. Peterka et al [8] conducted
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