Numerical investigation of effects of rotating downdraft on tornado-like-vortex characteristics

Shuyang Cao,Mengen Wang,Jinwei Zhu,Jinxin Cao,Tetsuro Tamura,Qingshan Yang 한국풍공학회 2018 Wind and Structures, An International Journal (WAS Vol.26 No.3

Appropriate modeling of a tornado-like vortex is a prerequisite when studying the near-ground wind characteristics of a tornado and tornado-induced wind loads on structures. Both Ward- and ISU-type tornado simulators employ guide vanes to induce angular momentum to converge flow in order to generate tornado-like vortices. But in the Ward-type simulator, the guide vanes are mounted near the ground while in the ISU-type they are located at a high position to allow vertical circulation of flow that creates a rotating downdraft to generate a tornado-like vortex. In this study, numerical simulations were performed to reproduce tornado-like vortices using both Ward-type and ISU-type tornado simulators, from which the effects of rotating downdraft on the vortex characteristics were clarified. Particular attention was devoted to the wander of tornado-like vortices, and their dependences on swirl ratio and fetch length were investigated. The present study showed that the dynamic vortex structure depends significantly on the vortex-generating mechanism, although the time- averaged structure remains similar. This feature should be taken into consideration when tornado-like-vortex simulators are utilized to investigate tornado-induced wind forces on structures.

Numerical investigation of effects of rotating downdraft on tornado-like-vortex characteristics

Cao, Shuyang,Wang, Mengen,Zhu, Jinwei,Cao, Jinxin,Tamura, Tetsuro,Yang, Qingshan Techno-Press 2018 Wind and Structures, An International Journal (WAS Vol.26 No.3

Appropriate modeling of a tornado-like vortex is a prerequisite when studying the near-ground wind characteristics of a tornado and tornado-induced wind loads on structures. Both Ward- and ISU-type tornado simulators employ guide vanes to induce angular momentum to converge flow in order to generate tornado-like vortices. But in the Ward-type simulator, the guide vanes are mounted near the ground while in the ISU-type they are located at a high position to allow vertical circulation of flow that creates a rotating downdraft to generate a tornado-like vortex. In this study, numerical simulations were performed to reproduce tornado-like vortices using both Ward-type and ISU-type tornado simulators, from which the effects of rotating downdraft on the vortex characteristics were clarified. Particular attention was devoted to the wander of tornado-like vortices, and their dependences on swirl ratio and fetch length were investigated. The present study showed that the dynamic vortex structure depends significantly on the vortex-generating mechanism, although the time-averaged structure remains similar. This feature should be taken into consideration when tornado-like-vortex simulators are utilized to investigate tornado-induced wind forces on structures.

Numerical study of wind profiles over simplified water waves

Shuyang Cao,Enzhen Zhang,Liming Sun,Jinxin Cao 한국풍공학회 2015 Wind and Structures, An International Journal (WAS Vol.21 No.3

Vertical profiles of mean and fluctuating wind velocities over water waves were studied, by performing Large-Eddy Simulations (LES) on a fully developed turbulent boundary layer over simplified water waves. The water waves were simplified to two-dimensional, periodic and non-evolving. Different wave steepness defined by a /λ ( a : wave amplitude; λ : wavelength) and wave age defined by c/Ub (c: phase velocity of the wave; Ub : bulk velocity of the air) were considered, in order to elaborate the characteristics of mean and fluctuating wind profiles. Results shows that, compared to a static wave, a moving wave plays a lesser aerodynamic role as roughness as it moves downstream slower or a little faster than air, and plays more aerodynamic roles when it moves downstream much faster than air or moves in the opposite direction to air. The changes of gradient height, power law index, roughness length and friction velocity with wave age and wave amplitude are presented, which shed light on the wind characteristics over real sea surfaces for wind engineering applications.

Numerical study of wind profiles over simplified water waves

Cao, Shuyang,Zhang, Enzhen,Sun, Liming,Cao, Jinxin Techno-Press 2015 Wind and Structures, An International Journal (WAS Vol.21 No.3

Vertical profiles of mean and fluctuating wind velocities over water waves were studied, by performing Large-Eddy Simulations (LES) on a fully developed turbulent boundary layer over simplified water waves. The water waves were simplified to two-dimensional, periodic and non-evolving. Different wave steepness defined by $a/{\lambda}$ (a : wave amplitude; ${\lambda}$ : wavelength) and wave age defined by $c/U_b$ (c: phase velocity of the wave; $U_b$ : bulk velocity of the air) were considered, in order to elaborate the characteristics of mean and fluctuating wind profiles. Results shows that, compared to a static wave, a moving wave plays a lesser aerodynamic role as roughness as it moves downstream slower or a little faster than air, and plays more aerodynamic roles when it moves downstream much faster than air or moves in the opposite direction to air. The changes of gradient height, power law index, roughness length and friction velocity with wave age and wave amplitude are presented, which shed light on the wind characteristics over real sea surfaces for wind engineering applications.

POD-based analysis of time-resolved tornado-like vortices

Mengen Wang,Shuyang Cao,Jinxin Cao 한국풍공학회 2021 Wind and Structures, An International Journal (WAS Vol.33 No.1

In this study, three representative configurations of tornado-like vortices, i.e., single vortex, vortex breakdown and multi-vortex, are numerically simulated using large-eddy simulation (LES). Proper orthogonal decomposition (POD) is firstly employed to decompose flow-field snapshots into a series of orthogonal flow patterns (POD modes) and time-dependent coefficients. Then, a conditional-average analysis is conducted to obtain the four kinds of conditionally-averaged flow fields, which are then compared with instantaneous and ensemble-averaged flow fields. Next, a quadruple POD analysis is performed to decompose the instantaneous flow field into mean, coherent, transition and noise components. Finally, a qualitative analysis is implemented for unsteady vortex motions in horizontal and vertical planes. Results show that the conditional average shows larger-scale coherent structures than the classical ensemble average, while it loses the small-scale turbulent fluctuations present in instantaneous flow. The tornado vortex structure is controlled by the mean component in the single-vortex stage. With increase in swirl ratio, the tornado vortex evolves from single-vortex, to vortex-breakdown to multi-vortex, companied by kinetic energy transference to coherent and transition components. The horizontal and vertical vortex motions are essentially the results of horizontal and vertical velocity perturbations.

Numerical studies on non-shear and shear flows past a 5:1 rectangular cylinder

Qiang Zhou,Shuyang Cao,Zhiyong Zhou 한국풍공학회 2013 한국풍공학회지 Vol.17 No.4

Large Eddy Simulations (LES) were carried out to investigate the aerodynamic characteristics of a rectangular cylinder with side ratio B/D=5 at Reynolds number Re=22,000 (based on cylinder thickness). Particular attention was devoted to the effects of velocity shear in the oncoming flow. Time-averaged and unsteady flow patterns around the cylinder were studied to enhance understanding of the effects of velocity shear. The simulation results showed that the Strouhal number has no significant variation with oncoming velocity shear, while the peak fluctuation frequency of the drag coefficient becomes identical to that of the lift coefficient with increase in velocity shear. The intermittently-reattached flow that features the aerodynamics of the 5:1 rectangular cylinder in non-shear flow becomes more stably reattached on the high-velocity side, and more stably separated on the low-velocity side. Both the mean and fluctuating drag coefficients increase slightly with increase in velocity shear. The mean and fluctuating lift and moment coefficients increase almost linearly with velocity shear. Lift force acts from the high-velocity side to the low-velocity side, which is similar to that of a circular cylinder but opposite to that of a square cylinder under the same oncoming shear flow.

Numerical Simulation of Wind Pressures on a High-rise Building by Auto-mesh System

Tang, Yuanzhe,Cao, Shuyang Council on Tall Building and Urban Habitat Korea 2019 International journal of high-rise buildings Vol.8 No.4

This paper describes large eddy simulation of wind pressures on a square cylinder in a uniform flow and a high-rise building immersed in an atmospheric turbulent boundary layer. For the atmospheric boundary layer case, the inflow turbulence is generated by a numerical wind tunnel. In the numerical simulation, particular attention is devoted to the performance of an auto hexahedral non-structural mesh. Both simulations are performed for three grid systems: an auto hexahedral non-structured grid, a structured Cartesian grid and a non-structured triangular prism grid, and for three grid numbers. The present study shows that the auto hexahedral unstructured mesh achieves the best simulation results for wind pressures on the square cylinder and the high-rise building. When the grid number is sufficiently large, the differences among the results obtained from the three investigated grid systems are not significant. However, the advantage of the auto hexahedral unstructured mesh becomes clear when the grid number decreases, because it enables a balanced distribution of orthogonal grids. The results described in this paper demonstrate that the auto hexahedral non-structured mesh has good potential applicability to simulation of urban flows.

Effects of inflow turbulence and slope on turbulent boundary layers over two-dimensional hills

Tong Wang,Shuyang Cao,Yaojun Ge 한국풍공학회 2014 Wind and Structures, An International Journal (WAS Vol.19 No.2

The characteristics of turbulent boundary layers over hilly terrain depend strongly on the hill slope and upstream condition, especially inflow turbulence. Numerical simulations are carried out to investigate the neutrally stratified turbulent boundary layer over two-dimensional hills. Two kinds of hill shape, a steep one with stable separation and a low one without stable separation, and two kinds of inflow condition, laminar and turbulent, are considered. An auxiliary simulation, based on the local differential quadrature method and the recycling technique, is performed to simulate the inflow turbulence to be imposed at the inlet boundary of the simulation with turbulent inflow, which preserves very well in the computational domain. A large separation bubble is established on the leeside of the steep hill with laminar inflow, while the reattachment point moves upstream under turbulent inflow condition. There is stable separation on the lee side of the low hill with laminar inflow, while not with turbulent inflow. Besides increase of turbulence intensity, inflow turbulence can efficiently enhance the speedup around hills.So in practice, it is unreasonable to study wind flow over hilly terrain without considering inflow turbulence.

Numerical studies on non-shear and shear flows past a 5:1 rectangular cylinder

Zhou, Qiang,Cao, Shuyang,Zhou, Zhiyong Techno-Press 2013 Wind and Structures, An International Journal (WAS Vol.17 No.4

Large Eddy Simulations (LES) were carried out to investigate the aerodynamic characteristics of a rectangular cylinder with side ratio B/D=5 at Reynolds number Re=22,000 (based on cylinder thickness). Particular attention was devoted to the effects of velocity shear in the oncoming flow. Time-averaged and unsteady flow patterns around the cylinder were studied to enhance understanding of the effects of velocity shear. The simulation results showed that the Strouhal number has no significant variation with oncoming velocity shear, while the peak fluctuation frequency of the drag coefficient becomes identical to that of the lift coefficient with increase in velocity shear. The intermittently-reattached flow that features the aerodynamics of the 5:1 rectangular cylinder in non-shear flow becomes more stably reattached on the high-velocity side, and more stably separated on the low-velocity side. Both the mean and fluctuating drag coefficients increase slightly with increase in velocity shear. The mean and fluctuating lift and moment coefficients increase almost linearly with velocity shear. Lift force acts from the high-velocity side to the low-velocity side, which is similar to that of a circular cylinder but opposite to that of a square cylinder under the same oncoming shear flow.

Effects of inflow turbulence and slope on turbulent boundary layer over two-dimensional hills

Wang, Tong,Cao, Shuyang,Ge, Yaojun Techno-Press 2014 Wind and Structures, An International Journal (WAS Vol.19 No.2

The characteristics of turbulent boundary layers over hilly terrain depend strongly on the hill slope and upstream condition, especially inflow turbulence. Numerical simulations are carried out to investigate the neutrally stratified turbulent boundary layer over two-dimensional hills. Two kinds of hill shape, a steep one with stable separation and a low one without stable separation, two kinds of inflow condition, laminar turbulent, are considered. An auxiliary simulation, based on the local differential quadrature method and recycling technique, is performed to simulate the inflow turbulence be imposed at inlet boundary of the turbulent inflow, which preserves very well in the computational domain. A large separation bubble is established on the leeside of the steep hill with laminar inflow, while reattachment point moves upstream under turbulent inflow condition. There is stable separation on the side of low hill with laminar inflow, whilw not turbulent inflow. Besides increase of turbulence intensity, inflow can efficiently enhance the speedup around hills. So in practice, it is unreasonable to study wind flow over hilly terrain without considering inflow turbulence.