An Investigation into the Sand Erosion Technique as a Means of Determining the Wind Environment around Buildings

摘要

Due to the presence of the atmospheric boundary layer, the stagnation pressure on the windward face of a high building increases with height, resulting in a flow of air down the building creating regions of high wind speeds in close proximity to the building. An investigation was carried out into the feasibility of using a sand erosion technique to determine the wind environment at pedestrian height in building complexes. The technique was developed from an initial investigation carried out by Beranek and van Koten. The technique was found to be consistent within reasonable experimental limits and a contour line map of equal discomfort was obtained using this technique. It is easily adapted to define contours of varying discomfort: however, this was not done. The effects of initial sand thickness and duration of test upon the contours were obtained. Recommendations were made on how to develop the technique to be able to define areas of differing discomfort.