Study On Numerical Wind Tunnel Method For Wind Load Determination

The main theory of numerical wind tunnel method is computational fluid dynamic (CFD), which simulates the air flow numerically to get the velocity, pressure and other physical values. Irregulate fluctuation in turbulence has great influence on wind load of the structures. Therefore, the influence of turbulence must be considered to get reliable results in numerical wind tunnel method.Numerical wind tunnel method in wind load determination was studied in this paper. Body coefficients determined with numerical wind tunnel method for several structure shapes agreed very well with those in related codes and wind tunnel experiments. The feasibility and reliability of numerical wind tunnel method were then verified.Wind load on barrel shell structure and gabled frame structure were first studied with numerical wind tunnel method. The resulted body coefficients were verified by comparing with related codes. The cantilever roof of stadium was then studied by numerical wind tunnel method and its body coefficients were determined. The effects of roof thickness, mesh, turbulence model, the stand and the height of the stand on wind load were discussed. At last, the body coefficients were determined for the roof structure of Beidaihe railstation platform with numerical wind tunnel method. The results agreed very well with those of wind tunnel experiment and the feasibility and reliability of numerical wind tunnel method were further verified. In addition, the effects of skylight and trains on the wind load were studied to provide body coefficients for the design of the structure.