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dOOlCtO~OF

Journal of Wind Engmeenng ~I/~i1~


ELSEVIER and Industnal Aerodynamics 53 (1994) 105-123

Wind pressures on tropical housing


J.D. H o l m e s
CS1RO, Dwtston of Budding, Construction and Engmeermg,
Graham Road, Hlghett, Vtc 3190, Austraha

Abstract

The characteristics of wind pressures acting on the walls and roofs of gable-roofed
tropical houses, based on wind-tunnel model experiments, are described The effects of elev-
ation, roof pitch and grouping of buildings on the external pressures are discussed,
together with some characteristics of internal pressures when there are dominant wall
openings

1. Introduction

A high percentage of the population of the world lives in the tropics, espeoally in
the coastal regions, where advantage can be taken of the natural coohng effects of the
sea breezes and trade winds. Unfortunately, m a n y of these coastal regions are also
liable to be subjected to the winds generated by extreme tropical cyclones, known in
some localmes as "typhoons" and "hurricanes" However, severe tropical cyclones are
not felt in latitudes within about ten degrees of the equator, due to the low magnitude
of the Coriohs forces
Knowledge of wind pressures, or their coefficients, on the roofs and walls of tropical
houses is important from the point of view of both natural ventllatmn and of wind
loads. Th~s paper describes the mare features of an extenswe study of wind pressures
on tropical houses carned out in a boundary-layer wind tunnel. The effects of
elevation of houses above the ground, roof pitch, and the grouping of houses were all
studied, and internal as well as external pressures were measured Full details of this
work are described elsewhere [1].
Although the work described in this paper was directed specifically to wind
pressures on tropical-style houses, m a n y of the results are applicable to non-tropical
houses and to other types of small low-rise braidings.

Elsewer Science B V
SSDI 0 1 6 7 - 6 1 0 5 ( 9 4 ) 0 0 0 1 5 - 6
106 J D Holmes/J Wmd En,e lnd ~tetodvn 53 r1994J 10~ 123

2. Experimental techniques

2 1 Wmd tunnel and boundary layer slmulatton

The tests were carried out In an open circuit, boundary-layer wind tunnel at James
Cook University, Townsvllle, Queensland, Australia The total length of this wind
tunnel is 26 2 m, including the section containing the axial-flow fan and the diffuser
All the results described in this paper were obtained from models located at a position
12 m from the start of the test section The test section is 2.0 m high and 2 5 m w~de
The axial flow fan is driven by a 45 kW Induction m o t o r through a five-speed gearbox
Flows representative of the inner part of the atmospheric boundary layer in tropical
cyclones or trade winds, at geometric scales of 1/50 and 1/100 were set up in the wind
tunnel The barrier-roughness method [2,3] of simulation was used, this method
allows a convenient adjustment of the scaling of the flow m relation to the braiding
size Increasing the height of the barrier simultaneously increases both the turbulence
intensity and scale at a given height at the test position However, models should be
located at least 30 barrier heights downwind from the barrier to avoid residual wake
effects on the mean velocity profile [3] No "mixing devices", such as spires or grids, as
used in other simulations [4,5], were used in these tests, to keep the turbulence length
scale as large as possible
For the 1/50 scale tests, a 300 m m high barrier was used, and the 1/100 scale tests
the barrier height was reduced to 200 m m In both cases, carpet roughness was used
These gave reasonable simulations, at the appropriate scales, of developed boundary
layer flow over rural terrain with a roughness length of about 35 mm. The mean
velocity and turbulence intensity profiles, for the 1/50 simulation, are shown in Figs 1
and 2, respectively
The mean velocity profile in Fig. 1 IS quite similar to that given for rural terrain in
regions C and D (tropical coastline), in the Australian Standard for Wind Loads [6]
However, the turbulence intensity in Fig 2 IS shghtly lower than that specified for
tropical cyclones m the Standard, it is known that turbulence intensities in the zone of
m a x i m u m winds in mature tropical cyclones, are higher than those in temperate gale
con&tions
The spectral density of the longitudinal turbulence component at a height equiva-
lent to 5 m in full scale for the 1/50 simulation is shown in Fig 3 The integral scale of
turbulence at this height is approximately 30 m in full scale E S D U 85020 [7] gives
a value of about 54 m at this height for equilibrium (gale) conditions, for a latitude of
20 °, and a mean velocity of 30 m/s The v o n - K a r m a n spectral density function,
corresponding to this Integral scale IS shown In Fig. 3 Conditions near the region of
m a x i m u m winds in a tropical cyclone are not in equilibrium, and reliable experi-
mental data on spectra in these con&tlons ~s unavailable However, it might be
expected that the length scales of turbulence in tropical cyclones are smaller than
those occurring m gale conditions on which the E S D U data are based, due to the
smaller size of the storm and the shorter fetch lengths Furthermore, pressures on
building models are not sensitive to scale length changes within 50% of the optimum
value
J D Holmes/J Wmd Eng lnd Aerodyn 53 (1994)105-123 107

20
E •
In(z/za)

15 "." 35,.., . 15
I.IJ /
I D

..._1
<, , f
__1
-J •
tt.
5 5
1"

00 ~
..f O
05 1.0 1.5
~/~ref
Fig 1 M e a n velocaty profile (1/50 scale)

25
!-
2O

I:: o
I-'-
T
15
ILl 1
"r" I.l~,d
tO
_..] zo-a5 mm
<
10 :-
_J

~5 ',

0"1 0"2 0"3 O'L

Fig 2 T u r b u l e n c e intensity profile (1/50 scale)


108 J D HolmeL,'J l~mdEng lnd Aetodvn 53 (1994) 105 123

n.Su(n ) O~;iralKanl
~ -~m~m~
U 12

Ol \

.001
0001 .001 01

n
Full scale ( rn .1)

Ftg 3 Longitudinal turbulence spectrum at 5 m height (1/50 scale)

2 2 Butldmg models and pressure measurement

The various Instrumented bmldmg models were fabricated from perspex and fitted
with pressure tapplngs consisting of 10 m m lengths of steel tubxng of 1 0 m m mternal
diameter These pressure tappmgs were connected via 450 m m lengths of vinyl tubing,
of 1 5 m m internal diameter c o n t a m m g either one or two restnctors, to a Type D48
Scamvalve into which a Setra 237 pressure transducer was fitted. These systems gave
an amphtude frequency response which was nearly flat to 100 Hz [8] At a time scale
of around 20, this corresponded to about 5 Hz in full scale By statistically comparing
peak pressures measured by this system, with those measured through a short-tube
system of high frequency response, it was concluded that the true peaks were
underestimated by the measurement system by about 10% This should be allowed for
when considering the peak pressure coefficients described in ttus paper, which have
not been corrected for this effect
The fluctuating pressures were sampled by a minicomputer at a sampling rate of
500 Hz The samphng time varied between 16 and 20 s, representing a period of 5 to
10 m m at full scale
J D Holmes/J Wind Eng Ind Aerodyn 53 (1994) 105-123 109

3. Seo0e of the measurements

Fig. 4 shows the range of configurations tested in this study A range of tropical
style house shapes, with gable-roofs, and overhanging eaves and gable ends, were
studied Roof pitches from 10 ° to 30 ° were included, and the effect of elevation of the
building on columns - a style that is c o m m o n in Northern Australia and other
countries - was also examined Internal pressures in buildings with dominant wall
openings, and the sheltering effects on houses within suburban groupings were also
investigated
The full-scale heights to the eaves of the elevated and single-storey houses were 5 1
and 3.0 m, respectively This gave Jensen numbers (eaves height/roughness length) for
these tests of about 145 and 85, respectively.

HIGH-SET

~I0°P I T C H - - , ~ ~

INTERNAL PRESSURESWITH
DOMINANT OPENINGS

~oSCALE 3 ~ ~
/ /

~ ~ " ~ GROUND HOUS,NG


7--- F,-7
T / IIALL
lo rcHI
AI I Ino

Fig 4 Configurations used m the tests


llO JD Holme~ I HtndEng lnd 4erod~n 53 (1994) 105 123

The results are presented m the form of the statistics of the Ume-varymg pressure
coefficients, and of the following four basic pressure coefficients
(a) Mean (time-averaged) pressure coefficient, Cr
(b) Maximum peak pressure coefficient, ~p
(c) Minimum peak pressure coefficient, Cp
(d) Root-mean-square fluctuating pressure coefficient, C~
The reference static pressure was measured by the static holes of a pitot-stat~c tube
near the top of the wind tunnel, but corrected for a slight vertical static pressure
gradient m the tunnel The mean velocity for the reference dynamic pressure was
measured, by a hot-film anemometer, at the eaves height of each building model,
upwind and away from the direct Influence of the model

4. Statistical characteristics of the external pressures

4 1 Nature o/the pressure fluctuattons and probabthty dtstrlbuttons

Typical time histories of pressure coefficients from the elevated house (10 ° pitch) for
a wind direction normal to one wall of the building are shown In Fxg 5. The highly
turbulent nature of the pressure fluctuations, especially on the windward wall and at

3" ~ TRP '~ ' I TAP 3

2 ,

Cp -1

-2

0 1 2 0

0 i j I~P 2 i l TAP 4 I

Cff _

-2

.
I 3
i I
0 1 2 0 1 2
MINUTES MINUTES

Fig 5 Plots of pressure coetliclents against full-scale time (elevated house)


JD Holmes/J VVmdEng Ind Aerodyn 53 (1994) 105-123 111

8 8

6 6

Gausslan .. ~ ~ =----'4
2 -,\ _.~- 2
Standard ~
Deviations o ~ o
from
Mean -2 ~ 2,-- ~-.-" f " - -2

-6 -6

-8 -8

.0001 .001 .01 1 5 9 99 999 9999

Cumulative Probability Distribution

Fig 6 Cumulative probablhty distributions of pressures (elevatedhouse)

the leading edge of the roof are clearly shown Much lower levels of fluctuations occur
on the leeward half of the roof and on the leeward wall.
Fig 6 shows the cumulatwe probabdlty distribution functions for the same series of
pressure records shown in Fig 5 Gausslan, or normal dlstrlbuUon, functions appear
as straight lines m Fig. 6. The pressure fluctuations on the windward wall are skewed
towards the poslUve side at high and low probabdlt~es. This can be explained by the
square law transfer of velocity fluctuations (which are close to Gausslan) to pressure
fluctuations [9]
The main feature of the distributions for all the roof pressure fluctuations Is the
departure from Gausslan form, at the low probability end. This can be seen in the time
histories in Fig. 5, in the form of high suction peaks acting over very short time
periods. These are caused by the passage of vortex-hke structures produced by the
rolhng up of the separating shear layers produced at the edge of the roof [10,11]

4 2 Spectra o f the pressure fluctuatzons

Fig 7 shows smoothed spectral density estimates for the four points on the centre
hne of the elevated house discussed in the previous section. The spectrum for the
upwind velocity IS also shown The spectrum of the windward wall pressure is similar
to that for the upwind velocity, except for a more rapid attenuation at high frequen-
cies. The latter is a consequence of the dlstortmn of the turbulence as It Is swept
around the budding [12,13].
112 J D Holme~,J WmdEng lnd Aerodvn 53 (1994)105 123

1 I

rl.Sp(rl) ',, ~oclty ~,'


\

01 I "

001
0001 001 01
n
Full scale ( m -1)

Fig 7 Spectra of pressure fluctuations (elevated house)

The spectra of the roof pressure fluctuations, m contrast, show a large relative
increase m high-frequency energy, which is particularly noticeable on the downwind
end of the roof, giving a double peak effect Since the extra high-frequencies were not
present m the freestream, they appear to be associated with vortlc~ty generated m the
separating shear layers at the leading edge, as &scussed m the previous section It
should be noted that the spectra shown have not been corrected for the frequency
response of the pressure measurement system, so that the actual attenuation rates at
wave numbers greater than 0 2 are slightly lower than those shown m Fig 7

5. External pressures on isolated houses

5 1 Effect of elevatton

A comparison of mean pressure coefficients for the single-storey "low-set" and


"high-set" (elevated) houses with 10 ° pitch roofs is shown m Figs 8-10, for mean wind
&rectlons of 0 °, 60 ° and 90 °, respectwely (at 0 °, the mean wind direction ts normal to
the ridge) The roof pressure coeffictents are mvanably negatwe for all wind &rectlons,
J D Holmes/J Wmd Eng Ind Aerodyn 53 (1994)105-123 113

i I; - i !I -0~' i11
""
+0"~\
,,;
ii I ,;,,
!,,I :.o,, ,~l L) M ,4' i
I I I L,/ #I ;'" II !li ~6 II
I I I I " " -o13av -03 I-o9 II I I
-o~<,,, o~ o~ -o~:, .~o, ~ ~I o'~I ~l,~i~ b g

t\ i ,,t i i \ll
i < \\t,
t,]
.o<,
I

\ I % I -1"51 -~124

Fig 8 Mean pressure coefficients on elevated and single-storey houses with wind direction normal to ndge
(roof slope = 10°)

with higher magnitudes occurring on the elevated house. The wall pressure coeffic-
Ients are also significantly higher for the elevated house, particularly on the windward
wall, and on the windward edges of the side walls.
The wind direction of 60 ° (Fig. 9) coincided approximately with a line joining the
windward corner to the centre of the building, and produced the worst mean and
minimum roof negative pressures at points on the gable end of the overhanging roof,
for both the elevated and low-set building These high negative pressures are asso-
ciated with conical vortices along the edges of the roof near the corner [14]. For the
wind direction parallel to the ridge (Fig. 10) the magnitudes of the negative roof
pressures reduce, under the reattaching flow, as the distance downwind of the leading
edge Increases
Polar plots of the mean, rms and maximum and minimum pressure coefficients for
a point on the roof of the elevated building are shown in Fig 11 Clearly, there are
large mean and minimum pressures, and large changes in the local pressures with
small changes in mean wind direction, around 6 0 °. The rms pressure coefficient is also
very large around this wind direction, indicating large pressure fluctuations associated
with the vortex aligned with the gable end The effect of these large pressures on the
structural loads may be quite small due to their very local character, however.
As well as the mean pressure coefficients, the rms and peak pressure coefficients
are also considerably higher on the elevated house, compared with the low-set,
114 J D Holme~,'J l~md Eng lnd Aerod>n 53 (1994) 105 123

I
', /--\\03 I / ,-03 -031 J _

I i, , ,t~ _~2 ~ I, ,,' ' I llll


I J ii \ I II i I I
_ -, ,135 -. ".~,I I -~I ~I'12
I Ill / '~ -..-~.j I i ,r ii/
-o6
--- \\~2-- -~ ~.!' "'I'!kJ\; koa
'Lj ]' ..-.to6,, -o7.~ \k. \k. ki(l/
,,-"-~£ ,,~r/
L -1.~'~';i:'4~_,,.,.,,,., //-142" .-1./.,~"-~ "J~..012

N \ MEAN
\WIND \WIND

Fig 9 Mean pressure coefficients on elevated and single-storey houses with wind direction along the plan
dmgonal (roof slope = 10 °)

single-storey house. The higher pressure coefticlents on the elevated house are com-
bined with a dynamic pressure based on the mean velocity at eaves height which ~s
2 0 - 3 0 % higher Thus the pressures occurring m the same windstorm may be expected
to be 4 0 - 8 0 % higher on the elevated budding This may be one reason why buildings
of this type experienced considerably more damage during Cyclone "Tracy" m
Darwm, Austraha (1974) [15] From the point of view of natural ventdatlon, increased
wall pressures are favourable, which probably explains the popularity of this type of
housing m hot, humxd chmates. However, the shielding effects of upwind buildings are
qmte strong, as discussed in Section 7

5 2 Effect of roofpttch

Tropical houses are often built with high roof pitches to accommodate dramage
problems assooated with periods of high monsoonal rainfall. The effect of roof pitch
angle on the mean pressure coefficients for a wind direction normal to the ridge is
shown in Fig. 12. Values are shown for low-set houses with gable roofs with pitches of
15 °, 20 ° and 30°; the 10° roof pitch case is shown m Fig 8 The effect of roof pitch on
the mean roof pressures Is considerable. On the upwind half of the roof, the mean
J D Holmes/J Wmd Eng Ind Aerodyn 53 (1994) 105-123 115

/ \ ,'G("-I-.--"-.
/ \
/ \
/ \
I -Ol \
I \
I
\.. /I -o2..
I
"<L _ -o3. :.03 -o=_
q06 11-0 8
~"~" / I
"-..
%<1"0Z1~0:
I ~ : . - ' : 0 . 8 ------""
/ '% I-Io15.~, i
|w,No WIND

Fig 10 Mean pressure coefficients on elevated and single-storey houses with wind &rectlon parallel to the
ridge (roof slope = 10°)

pressure coefficients are all negative at 15 ° pitch, near zero at 20 ° and almost all
positive at 30 °. The effect of the second separation at the ridge on the negative
pressures is largest at 15 ° pitch At 20 ° and 30 ° pitch, the flow does not reattach after
the second separation, giving a nearly uniform mean pressure coefficient of about
- 0 5 on the downwind half of the roof.
Mean pressure coefficients on the walls are largely insenmtlve to the roof pitch, and
this IS also true of the roof pressures for a wind direction parallel to the ridge. In the
latter case, a s~mllar &stributlon to that shown in Fig. 10 was found, with negative
mean pressure coefficients reducing rapidly from the leading edge
F r o m data from the complete set of wind directions tested (0 °, 10 °, 20 °, 30 °, 35 °, 40 °,
45 °, 50 °, 55 °, 60 °, 70 °, 80 °, 90°), contours of the worst minimum pressure coeffic,ents
("peak suctions") have been generated, and are shown in Fig. 13 The symmetry of the
models was used to include the effects of winds from four quadrants (0-360 °) m this
figure.
The effect of increasing roof pitch is to emphasize the gable end as the worst loaded
region. The eaves along the long wall are only heavily loaded for the roof pitch of 10 °
116 I D Holme~'l W m d E n g lnd 4erodvn 53 (1994)105 12¢

• Cp
ec~

5
Fig 11 Pressure coefficients versus wind direction for a gable end pressure point (elevated budding)

For all pitches the largest magmtude values occurred along the gable ends. For the 20 °
pitch r o o f a value of --7 2 was recorded, on the downwind side of the ridge for a wind
&rectlon of 35 ° in the second quadrant, and very high values also occurred at that
p o s m o n for every other wind &rectlon between 30 ° and 55 ° m that quadrant This is
shown m Table 1, which clarifies the wind &rectlon for which the high peak values
occur, and also shows the mean and rms values for those directions The pressure
coefficients at points under the eaves and gable end overhangs were also measured,
they are qmte similar to those on the lmme&ately adjacent wall surface
Hip roofs of 18 ° pitch have been stu&ed by Meecham et al [16], and the worst roof
pressures were found to be slgmficantly less than those on gable roof buildings of the
same pitch, apparently explaining observations that braidings of this type survwe
better m severe winds
J D Holmes/J Wmd Eng Ind Aerodyn 53 (1994.)105-123 117

I'o~ ~ -03 i l :;' -'~<;( ~ ~°~ ',, ."/", ,l"l ._oai


ii I I11i If 1.65 , -o5/ I I~ 1 I
/ I-~ I
I I
~/
I,'°8 i l ,i ~. ;i l llll I -o7 ' . 70~'1
-o61 iI ,~! .o3o~ ,J"l "°° -|6o i io~ .d3 I
I II II ~ >07 ! I i I .0""... I
I I I I -~
i i III II . . . . ~t,,.. J I I! I

'
li It ill
i! 'o~t,-/of
. ,,~.03
'

-'o~,,_,' li/.o~
'

I
, .],,.,,,
,~ I ":~'1

Fig 12 Effect of roof pitch angle on the mean pressure coefficients

6. I n t e r n a l pressures

A special model of a two-storey house for studying internal pressures was con-
structed at a scale of 1/50. A number of interchangeable panels, with various open
areas for the windward and leeward walls were manufactured, and used to study the
effect of both the absolute open area, and the ratio of windward to leeward open
areas
The full details of this work were described by Holmes [17], and only some features
will be described here The mean and rms fluctuating pressure coefficients show a
monotonic increase with increasing ratio of windward open area to leeward area The
mean internal pressure coefficient can be predicted fairly accurately by the following
formula, obtained by considering the flow through the openings and mass conserva-
tion,

Cp, = Cvw/[1 + (Al/Aw) 2] + Cpi/[(1 + (Aw/Al)2], (1)

where Cpw and Cvi are the mean pressure coefficients at the windward and leeward
openings, and Aw and Al are the areas of the windward and leeward openings,
respectively
Clearly the highest internal pressures will occur when there is a single windward
opening, and m a n y roof failures during Cyclone "Tracy" were attributed to openings
in windward walls [15] This case was studied in more detail both experimentally and
theoretically As shown in Fig. 14, it can be treated simply as a damped Helmholtz
resonator, well known in acoustics In simple terms, the system can be regarded as
a mass-sprmg-damper system, in which the mass or inertia is that of a "slug" of air, the
stiffness is the resistance inside the building to changes in pressure, and the damping is
118 I D Holme~,d 14,'tndEng lnd Aerod)n 53 (1994)105 123

I I --I I I

. .x ,~, "--_-3

I
X\\ I/I

1-3, '
\-~ 1 1-2~ ~, ~-2~ \

-7

)
Fig 13 Worst negatwe peak pressures for various roof pitches

represented by the energy losses of the flow through the opening A simulation model
that used tins analogy was developed, and Fig. 14 shows a secUon of computer-smaulated
mternal pressure for the case of an internal volume of 600 m 3 and wmdward open area
of 1 m 2, the mean wind speed is 30 m/s. The pressure record is clearly skewed towards
the posltwe side as the external pressure on the adjacent windward wall (Fig 6).
The mternal pressure record shows a small resonant contribution at the Helmholtz
resonant frequency, which m this case was 2.4 Hz The resonant frequency depends on
J D Holmes/J Wind Eng Ind Aerodyn 53 (1994)105-123 119

Table 1
Pressure coetficlents for a gable end roof tap (20° roof pitch)

Wind angle from normal to ndge Cp C~, CF

20 - 1 24 0 78 - 4 90
30 - 236 1 01 - 701
35 - 261 1 03 - 7 16
40 - 2 68 0 89 - 6 78
45 - 273 096 - 678
50 - 225 093 - 704
55 - 2 14 077 - 636
60 - 1 82 054 - 438

--- I - -I -
I I
I I
I i
I I
I I
t___ n .... A

the area of the o p e n i n g a n d o n the i n t e r n a l v o l u m e [17]. Frequencies u p to the


r e s o n a n t frequency are felt w~th little or n o a t t e n u a t i o n ms,de the building, a n d the
fluctuations are predicted to be well correlated t h r o u g h o u t the i n t e r n a l space. These
effects, prechcted by the simulation model, have been confirmed experimentally [17,18]
T h e occurrence of sudden d o m i n a n t o p e n i n g s in the b u d d i n g envelope, is a hkely
event in the severe winds at the height of a tropical cyclone, a n d the quesUon of
t r a n s i e n t pressure effects in these c~rcumstances anses. It appears, from e x p e n m e n t a l
a n d theoretical c o n s i d e r a t i o n s of this problem, that "overshooting" of the i n t e r n a l
pressure, i e. a n mcrease m the m t e r n a l pressure a b o v e the external value at the time of
fadure due to inertial effects, c a n occur, a l t h o u g h this effect m a y be reduced by
b a c k g r o u n d permeabihty, a n d by b u i l d i n g wall flexibihty [17,19]. This c o n c l u s i o n
needs c o n f i r m a t i o n by m e a s u r e m e n t s o n actual b u d d i n g structures, however

7. Effect of grouping

T h e effect of the g r o u p i n g of houses m c h a r a c t e n s t i c s u b u r b a n street p a t t e r n s was


studmd using models at a g e o m e t n c scale of 1/100, instead of 1/50 used for the studies
120 J D Holmea~J 14"md l:.ng lnd Aerodvn 53 ~1994)105 123

II "--{.. ..)-"

31 INTERNAL PRESSURE

2
u
1-

0 I"'
o 16 2'o 3b so
TIME(sec)
Fig 14 Simulated internal pressure record using Helmholtz resonator concept (internal volume 600 m 3,
opening area 1 m 2}

described previously m this paper. For these tests, the height of the barrier at the start
of the test section was reduced from 300 to 200 m m A comparison of pressure
coefficaents for asolated elevated and low-set houses at the two different scales showed
good agreement for the mean and rms fluctuating pressures, but the peak pressures on
the smaller scale models were lower than those on the 1/50 scale buildings At the tame
of the tests, this was attributed to small differences an the mean velocity and turbu-
lence profiles, and an the equivalent full-scale frequency response of the pressure
measurement system However, with the more recent experience on modelling the
Texas Tech Building, see, e g, Ref [20], at is quite possible there were some scaling
(Reynolds number) effects. However, the results obtained were used for comparisons
between grouped and asolated braidings, and are believed to be vahd
M a n y grouped-house configurations were examined and up to four rows of houses
were included m the groups. Pressure coefficients were calculated wath respect to the
dynamic pressure upstream and away from the influence of the group, ~e the same
reference pressure used for the asolated houses.
Fag 15 shows the effects on the mean pressure coefficient of adding an extra half
row of houses to each side of an isolated low-set house. A slgmficant increase in the
magnitude of the negative roof pressures occurs. However, some reductaon m the
magmtude then occurs when an extra one or two rows of house ~s added downwind
The effect of a single row of shielding houses upwind of a row containing an
anstrumented elevated house model is shown m Fig 16 The ratio of eaves height to
row spacing was found to be the main factor affecting the mean pressures. The only
shielding effects of any sagmficance occur on the windward wall and at the leading
J D Holmes/J Wmd Eng Ind Aerodyn 53 (1994)105-123 121

Cp: I 0 : ~o*at~ houw


L + - - 0 - - - - adjacent row

- - • - - 8cl|ic4nt row + 2 rows downwlnd

WIND

---I "
Fig 15 Effect of adjacent and downwind rows on centrehne mean pressures

- - O - - - - No.C;hieidihgrow
- - • - - Shielding row 20m upwind

- - - O - - - ~ Shield)ng row 40m upwind

Cp • 1 0 .... • ....... S~ie~i.g row eOm.~,vl.d


i r
-- -- • . . . . Shwlding row 80m upwind

F]g 16 Single row shielding-effect of row spacing on centrehne mean pressures


122 J D Holmea/J Wmd Eng Ind Aerodvn 53 (1994)105-12¢

edge of the roof The effects are quite large when the shleldmg row is at a dtstance
eqmvalent to 20 m full scale upwind, but gradually reduces as the separatton &stance
ts increased. For the same absolute separation &stances, there was less reduction due
to shielding on the low-set, single-storey buildings, because of the reduced budding
height
It was found that the pressures were largely ansensmve to the number of upwind
rows, but sensmve to the ratio of height to spacing
The importance of budding height to spacing ratio was also identified by Lee and
Sohman [21], who carried out measurements on prismatic models of vartous aspect
ratios, and identified three types of flow associated with different ranges of
height/spacing ratio isolated roughness flow, wake interference flow and "sklmmmg"
flow

8. Conclusions

The characteristics of wind pressures acting on the walls and roofs of gable-roofed
tropical houses, based on wind-tunnel model experiments, have been described The
effects of elevation, roof pitch, wind direction and grouping of buddmgs on the
external pressures were discussed, together with some characteristics of internal
pressures when there are dominant openmgs m a wall
The effect of elevation ts to increase the external wmd pressures slgmficantly, the
roof pitch has large effects on the roof pressures when there is a slgmficant wind
component normal to the ridge. The shleldmg effects of upwind buddlngs are depend-
ent strongly on the ratio of budding spacing to height

Acknowledgement

The financial support of the Austrahan Housing Research Council for the work
described in this paper is acknowledged. The contributions of Ross Best and Gordon
McNealy, during the wind-tunnel testing at James Cook Umverslty, are also grate-
fully acknowledged by the author

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