STATISTICAL MODELS PREDICTING EXTREME AND PEAK FACTORS OVER STAGGERED ARRAYS

Abstract

Wind-tunnel experiments with generic block arrays with the packing density of 25% were performed. Two velocity components in the streamwise and vertical directions were measured using an x-type hot-wire anemometer. The arrays were designed as those with a uniform cubic block with edges of 0.1 m and a combination of the blocks with the heights of 0.05 m and 0.15 m to investigate the effect of the height variation on the gusty wind phenomena. The result demonstrated that, above the canopy, there is little influence of block configurations on the turbulence statistic, extreme and peak factors. In addition, statistical models can predict well the extreme and peak factors for uniform and non-uniform height cases. Additional research on the influences of height variation is needed to fully understand the wind flow characteristics above the urban canopy.