Area-average peak pressures in a gable roof vortex region

A current area of research interest is the ability of boundary-layer wind t unnels to accurately model wind pressures on small buildings. The difficult y in modeling occurs, in part, because of the need to model the atmospheric boundary layer at scales which make it difficult to incorporate the larger eddies into the wind-tunnel boundary layer. Another difficulty is a lack o f high-quality field data. In this study, roof pressures measured on a smal l test building near Fort Collins, CO, USA, have been obtained with the exp licit purpose of comparing to boundary-layer wind-tunnel tests. At a 1:25 m odel scale, the wind-tunnel boundary layer contained an excess of turbulent energy at small scales and a lack of turbulent energy at large scales. The model and field data showed good comparison for both point pressures and a rea-average pressures in a roof vortex region. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science Lt d. All rights reserved.