Importance of turbulence for the prediction of surface pressures on low-rise structures

Full/model-scale pressure coefficients at four different locations on the surface of a rectangular structure are compared in order to evaluate basic wind-tunnel simulation criteria. Analysis of field records from the Wind Engineering Research Field Laboratory (WERFL) are limited to those records for which the streamwise and lateral turbulence intensities closely matched those of the simulations. No attempt is made to scale the turbulence integral scale. Flow parameters and pressure data from field records are compared with those from two wind-tunnel model (scale 1 : 50) experiments. The first simulation features the conventional spire-roughness method, while for the second simulation small spires are added just upstream of the model location. The purpose of the addition of the small spires is to match the lateral turbulence intensities and to increase the small-scale turbulence content of the three components in the incident flow.