Surface pressure on a cubic building exerted by conical vortices

Experiments were performed to study surface pressure on a cubic building underlying conical vortices, which are known to cause severe structural damage and failure. The focus is on the effects of turbulence in the incident flow. Three turbulent boundary layers were created in a boundary layer wind tunnel. A wall-mounted cube, i.e. a cube situated on the horizontal ground floor surface of the wind-tunnel test section, was used as an experimental model. The cube was subjected to the incidence flow at 40°. Steady and unsteady pressure measurements were performed on the cube surface. The analysis suggests that conical vortices developed above the top surface of the wall-mounted cube. A larger mean suction was observed on the top cube surface in the less turbulent boundary layer. With an increase in turbulence in the incoming flow, the strong suction zones decreased in size. The fluctuating pressure coefficient profiles retained their shape when the turbulence in the upstream flow of the cube increased. The fluctuating pressure coefficient was observed to be larger in more turbulent flows. The pressure fluctuations were larger on the cube surface underlying outer boundaries of the conical vortex. The fluctuating pressure coefficient under the conical vortex was three to four times larger than in the weak suction zone on the central area of the top cube surface. Close to the leading cube corner, the pressure spectra were dominated by a single low frequency peak. As the conical vortex developed, this primary peak weakened and a secondary peak emerged at a higher reduced frequency. There is a general trend of shifting the pressure spectra towards higher reduced frequencies when the turbulence in the undisturbed incident flow increases.