GUIDELINES FOR THE CALCULATION OF WIND SPEED-UPS IN COMPLEX TERRAIN

Several wind loading codes of practice make use of simple guidelines t o assess the effect of topography on design wind speeds. These guideli nes generally use some measure of the hill slope to predict the speed- up, and are normally derived by considering an isolated hill. In pract ice, hills are unlikely to be isolated and the effects of the surround ing topography must be included. This paper considers the results of a wind tunnel study of boundary layer flow over a number of two-dimensi onal complex surfaces. The effect of upstream topography is quantified and the observed speed-ups are compared to those predicted by the cur rent Canadian and UK codes of practice. Comparison is also made with s peed-up values calculated by using a linear model of flow over topogra phy. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.