Abstract
Windbreak fences have been used to reduce wind damage in urban areas and transportation. Fence performance may vary depending on the arrangement of openings, but evaluations have often been conducted assuming a uniform arrangement of openings. In this study, the effect of windbreak fences' opening patterns on their wake flow was evaluated by using computational fluid dynamics (CFD). A fence that is uniform in spanwise direction was divided vertically into 10 or 20 sections, and wake flow under various opening ratios and opening patterns were analyzed according to the sections' openings and non-openings. The results showed that, in general, the lower the opening rate, the more effective the wind kinetic energy reduction. However, the placement of the openings also greatly impacted the wind reduction. While a uniform arrangement of openings was most effective in fences divided into 10 sections, some non-uniform opening arrangements had smaller wind kinetic energy than the uniform one in fences divided into 20 sections.
