1 Wind Engineering Terminology Nicholas Isyumov1 1Professor Emeritus, The Boundary Layer Wind Tunnel Laboratory, University of Western Ontario, London Ontario, Canada email:
[email protected] ABSTRACT: This paper provides an overview of the technical terminology of wind engineering. It is intended to promote its use and to encourage its expansion. The non-dimensional numbers, concepts and ideas which are presented in this paper reflect my interests and should not be regarded as all inclusive. There are other terms which have been given only fleeting attention and some that have not been mentioned at all. Section 2, which presents the terminology used in wind tunnel model studies is the kernel of the paper. It includes such important terms as the Jensen (Je), Reynolds (Re), Scruton (Sc), Strouhal (St), Froude (Fr) and Cauchy (Ca) numbers and discusses their roles in the scaling of wind tunnel experiments and in the interpretation of their results. Also discussed are aeroelastic model studies. Section 3 discusses new additions to our terminology, including the Davenport Chain and the Tachikawa number (Ta). Wind speed scales used to describe and categorize various types of wind storms and their effects on the natural and built environments are discussed in Section 4. Current design procedures and methods of wind tunnel model testing are based on the concept that natural wind can be described as a locally stationary, turbulent boundary layer flow. This model of natural wind has served us well in describing winds in tropical and extra-tropical cyclones. However, the concept of steady “straight line” winds does not capture the effects of severe transient wind events such as tornadoes, thunderstorms and downbursts.