88th Annual Meeting (20-24 January 2008)

Tuesday, 22 January 2008: 11:45 AM
Preliminary results from a single building air flow patterns field study
220 (Ernest N. Morial Convention Center)
Gail-Tirrell Vaucher, Army Research Laboratory, White Sands Missile Range, NM NM; and R. Cionco, M. Bustillos, R. Brice, and S. D'Arcy
Poster PDF (84.7 kB)
In March 2007, the U.S. Army Research Laboratory completed the last of a three phase urban field study that detailed the sampling of airflow and stability around a single building in southeastern New Mexico. Unlike the earlier two Studies, this Study focused on the 4-dimensional characterization of the following flow features: the cavity flow, reattachment zone, side-eddies, canyon flow, velocity acceleration over the roof, and velocity deficit. The Study's field design was based on a Snyder and Lawson's 1994 wind tunnel study, as well as, a 3-dimensional diagnostic urban model. Measurements were acquired over a 2-week period using 12 towers/tripods located along the north, east, south, and west building sides, the roof and in strategic locations on the building's leeside. To minimize the heating/cooling bias, the equinox time period was selected for acquiring the data.

This paper will give a brief overview of the field study and provide a sample of the preliminary results. At the time of this writing, the in-progress data analysis had confirmed the presence of each feature, despite the atypical 2007 March New Mexico ‘windy season'. Available statistical and graphical results will be included when the paper is submitted.

Supplementary URL: