Experimental Study on Localized Wind Gust in Microbursts

Abstract

We experimentally simulated microbursts in water channel and measured them through PIV method, in order to clarify the reason of localized wind gust in microburst yielding localized damages. We found that the origin of localized wind gust was not boundary layer turbulence but intense concenrated downdraft without mashroom voritces. Our experimental results were comparable to actual wind gust of 30 m/s in velocity within small area of 300 m in diameter though the mean velocity of microburst of 3000 m in diameter was only 13 m/s.