Generating unconventional wind flow in an actively controlled multi-fan wind tunnel

Wei Cui, Lin Zhao, Shuyang Cao and Yaojun Ge

Abstract

In this study, an iteration-based method to simulate two typical examples of unconventional wind flow in a multi-fan wind tunnel is described: skewed non-Gaussian turbulence and sinusoidal type transient gust. The air flows are generated by 120 actively controlled fans arranged in a 10 wide by 12 high matrix. Time-varying voltages signals can be imported into the fans' servomotors, then corresponding wind flow can be produced in this wind tunnel. At first, the target wind speeds time series are converted to voltages signals, which are input into the fans' motor next, and then the initial wind flow generated can be measured. Then the wind speeds time series to be input are adjusted according to the differences between the target winds speeds and measured flow speeds. The above procedure is iteratively repeated until the measured wind flow is gradually close to the targets. At last, both non-Gaussian turbulence and transient gust can be simulated with satisfied precision after several iterations.

Key Words

actively controlled multi-fan wind tunnel; iteration; Non-Gaussian Turbulence; transient gust

Address

Wei Cui: State Key Lab of Disaster Reduction in Civil Engineering, Tongji University, Shanghai 200092, China/ Key Laboratory of Transport Industry of Wind Resistant Technology for Bridge Structures, Tongji University, Shanghai 200092, China Lin Zhao: State Key Lab of Disaster Reduction in Civil Engineering, Tongji University, Shanghai 200092, China/ Key Laboratory of Transport Industry of Wind Resistant Technology for Bridge Structures, Tongji University, Shanghai 200092, China/ State Key Laboratory of Mountain Bridge and Tunnel Engineering, Chongqing Jiaotong University, Chongqing 400074, China Shuyang Cao: State Key Lab of Disaster Reduction in Civil Engineering, Tongji University, Shanghai 200092, China/ Key Laboratory of Transport Industry of Wind Resistant Technology for Bridge Structures, Tongji University, Shanghai 200092, China Yaojun Ge: State Key Lab of Disaster Reduction in Civil Engineering, Tongji University, Shanghai 200092, China/ Key Laboratory of Transport Industry of Wind Resistant Technology for Bridge Structures, Tongji University, Shanghai 200092, China

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