Full scale experiments on vehicle induced transient pressure loads on roadside walls

Every day numerous vehicles of different types pass roadside walls. Typical roadside walls represent noise barriers, windbreak walls, screen walls, billboards, walls of lowered streets, underpasses or tunnel walls containing also traffic guidance and surveillance equipment. The aerodynamic interaction between the passing vehicle and the wall generates a vehicle-specific flow and pressure field, which leads to transient pressure forces acting on the wall. In order to quantify the pressure load on the wall, full scale experiments were performed for different vehicle types. To measure the pressure, a pressure scanner with multi-tapping technique and high temporal and spatial resolution was integrated into a test wall. The experiments provided a big database for the proper quantification of vehicle induced pressure loads on roadside walls as a function of vehicle types, vehicle velocities and the passing distance. Characteristic pressure patterns (or called more impressively as “pressure imprints”) on the wall could be found for different types of vehicles.