Comparison of High-Resolution Pressure Peaks in Closed and Open-Section Wind Tunnels

Wind tunnel testing represents an established technique for the assessment of wind-induced pressure on cladding systems. Nonetheless, some physical events, such as the strong negative peaks of pressure that occur on a building’s lateral facades, are not fully understood. These events can be catastrophic for cladding systems, which motivates their further investigation. The objective of the present work is to study the nature of extreme suction events, by comparing high-resolution pressure tap measurements on a high-rise building collected at two different facilities: the closed-circuit wind tunnel of Politecnico di Milano, and the open-circuit Wall of Wind facility at Florida International University. We first compare the statistics of the two atmospheric boundary layers, and subsequently present results for the mean and root mean square pressure distributions and negative peak pressure events. The experiments provide consistent results, and they both exhibit two types of negative peak pressure events: one is characterized by an extremely short duration and spatial extension, while the other impacts a larger portion of the facade.