In this study, wind tunnel tests are conducted to accumulate data for the wind resistance design of slim-type PL steel towers. The towers consist of steel pipes for its main columns and angular steel for its other components, where all components of the entire structure have a high solidity ratio. In the wind tunnel test, variation in mean and fluctuating wind forces, which depend on the solidity ratios, member sizes, and wind directions, are examined using two-dimensional models. In addition, wind force acting on the PL steel towers at a supercritical Reynolds number is studied by a method that simulates flow of high Reynolds number by adding roughness to the main column surface.

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When a stack in industrial facilities is not sufficiently high compared to the surrounding buildings, the dispersion of discharged pollutants can be affected by the buildings; this is commonly termed as building downwash. To enable more precise prediction of the building downwash, we have developed a computational fluid dynamics model that can reproduce momentum plume-rise process. We confirmed that the most of the surface concentrations predicted using the proposed model are within a factor of two of the wind-tunnel experimental results. Our study suggests that the mesh types around a stack can affects the prediction of surface concentration in high wind speed conditions.

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