Characteristics of surface wind pressures on low-rise building located among large group of surrounding buildings

Systematic wind pressure measurements were conducted in order to investigate the effect of a large group of surrounding buildings on wind pressures on a typical low-rise building. The primary purpose of this work was to understand and quantify the effects of nearby structures for engineers/designers, especially with regard to maximum and minimum values. Various ranges of area densities and measurement points were considered under a turbulent boundary layer representing a suburban area. Results show that although the mean pressure coefficient decreases as the area density increases and when the measurement points are located at the downstream side, the fluctuating component increases significantly, giving larger maximum and minimum coefficients than those for an isolated building.

► The proximity effects are again identified to be important. ► The decreasing ratio of square of wind speeds is larger than that of wind pressures. ► The flow condition within buildings quite depends on the dummy model arrangements. ► Most of the fluctuating components are generated by the flow within buildings. ► The effects of surrounding buildings should be considered within Lfetch/B ≈ 15.