Wind actions on structures downstream terrain roughness discontinuities: The ERIES-WhICH ROUGH Project

The ERIES-WhICH ROUGH Project was funded under the framework of the Horizon 2020, INFRA-2021-SERV-01-07 program. Its main goal is to assess the effects of wind profile transitions between different terrain roughness categories on the actions exerted on a high-rise building, with the final aim of devising a simplified loading model for the purpose of codification. Experiments were carried out at the TU/e wind tunnel facility in Eindhoven on a rectangular plan building model featuring the same ratios of dimensions B, D and H as those of the CAARC building. Three setups with uniform roughness were created in the wind tunnel, together with eight transitions between each pair of uniform roughness values. For each of the twenty-seven setups so obtained, instantaneous wind velocity profiles were measured, together with the instantaneous pressure distribution on the model building for three angles of incidence. Finally, the overall aerodynamic forces were derived from integration of surface pressures. This paper is meant to present the experimental campaign and the data that will be made available to the scientific community to provide a reference for their future exploitation. The measurements showed a clear evolution of the transition mean wind profiles with changing distance from the roughness discontinuity. Pressure loading patterns also change depending on distance from the discontinuity, and a relationship could be found between the profiles and the mean pressure distributions.