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Wind structure near a city centre

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Abstract

This paper describes some characteristics of wind flow over a city area. Extensive measurements were made of the wind structure at a particular site in order to provide a reference for a wind-tunnel simulation of flow over the area. Since full-scale measurements of wind flow over a very rough surface are rare, some results of wider interest are presented here.

The average roughness height was about half the height of the instrumented tower, so some anemometers were fully exposed while others were immersed in the interfacial layer between roughness elements. One would therefore expect profiles of mean properties to be of little relevance to other sites, but in fact such profiles were found to conform reasonably well with the shape expected for very rough ground. The structure of the turbulence was examined in a number of ways, and again a surprisingly good agreement with previous measurements over less rough terrain emerged.

The measurements were made with three-component propeller anemometers at eight heights from 10 to 70 m above ground. The methods of data collection and reduction are discussed briefly.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Mechanical Engineering, Auckland University, New Zealand

    P. S. Jackson

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  1. P. S. Jackson
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Jackson, P.S. Wind structure near a city centre. Boundary-Layer Meteorol 15, 323–340 (1978). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02652604

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02652604

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