A study of atmospheric flow in the wake of a large structure

Abstract

A theoretical-empirical study was performed to establish the structure of the velocity and pressure fields in the wake of an airport hangar. For the theoretical aspect, the perturbation technique was applied to the hydrodynamic equations for steady-state turbulent flow. The equations were put into non-dimensional form by the use of dimensions of the structure and the assumption that the basic or reference flows fit the logarithmic profile in the vertical. Observational values of the wind within a wake at a height of 2.4 m were used to establish the values of two parameters which were needed to complete the solution. Tables and graphs show the resulting computations of the flow and pressure deviation fields in three dimensions. The patterns seem reasonable for a region extending upward to about 1.5 h, where h is the height of the structure. However, the flow patterns above this level are suspect.