FireDOC Search

Author
Rehm, R. G. | McGrattan, K. B. | Baum, H. R. | Simiu, E.
Title
An Efficient Large Eddy Simulation Algorithm for Computational Wind Engineering: Application to Surface Pressure Computations on a Single Building.
Coporate
National Institute of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, MD
Report
NISTIR 6371, August 1999, 33 p.
Distribution
AVAILABLE FROM National Technical Information Service (NTIS), Technology Administration, U.S. Department of Commerce, Springfield, VA 22161. Telephone: 1-800-553-6847 or 703-605-6000; Fax: 703-605-6900. Website: http://www.ntis.gov
Keywords
wind effects | aerodynamics | simulation | pressure | structures
Identifiers
building aerodynamics; Computational Wind Engineering (CWE); large eddy simulation
Abstract
An efficient large eddy simulation algorithm is used to compute mean surface pressure distributions on an isolated building of various rectangular shapes. Two incoming mean wind profiles are considered in these computations, one uniform with height and the other increasing as a power law with height. The second profile accounts for flow retardation due to friction from the surface of the earth; in neither case are turbulent fluctuations included in the work. Mean pressure distributions are computed for a tall building, a cubical building and a flat building. These computational results are compared with wind tunnel measurements and computations performed by other investigators. The agreement in most cases is very good with differences of approximately twenty percent. Whereas the computations reported by the other investigators require supercomputers, most of our computations have been performed on a modern workstation and can be carried out routinely with computation times representing a small fraction of those required by supercomputing.