Characterization of Roughness Lengths at the Texas Tech Wind Engineering Research Field laboratory Using Gust Factor Analysis

The surface roughness length parameter can be estimated from the gust factors (ratio of the peak wind gust to the mean wind speed measured over an interval of time) of wind records as formulated by Wieringa (1973). This method is advantageous in that it utilizes readily available wind records from ordinary weather stations if the specifications of the recording instruments are known.

A 48.5 m tall guyed tower is located at the Texas Tech Wind Engineering Research Field laboratory (WERFL). This tower is used as a platform for wind measurement instrumentation at heights of 0.9, 2.4, 3.9, 10.0, 21.2, and 48.5 m. Historically, the wind profile method of calculating roughness lengths has been employed with the WERFL data, however a satisfactory characterization of the surrounding terrain has not yet been achieved. This study uses results obtained from the application of the Wieringa formula on the WERFL data to construct a roughness length profile around the WERFL site.