Internal pressure dynamics of a leaky building with a dominant opening

• Published in: Journal of wind engineering and industrial aerodynamics Vol. 99; no. 11; pp. 1151 - 1161
• Main Authors: Guha, T.K., Sharma, R.N., Richards, P.J.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Amsterdam Elsevier Ltd 01-11-2011; Elsevier
• Subjects: Applied sciences; Background leakage; Building internal volume; Buildings. Public works; Climatology and bioclimatics for buildings; Computation methods. Tables. Charts; Computational efficiency; Design solutions; Dominant opening; Exact sciences and technology; Exact solutions; Expenses; Internal pressure; Leakage; Mathematical models; Opening size; Porosity ratio; Simplification; Structural analysis. Stresses; Wind engineering; Wind tunnel testing; Wind tunnel testing; Building internal volume; Background leakage; Internal pressure; Dominant opening; Design solutions; Opening size; Porosity ratio; Buildings; Wind tunnel test; Leak; Theoretical study; Aerodynamics; Modeling; Numerical analysis; Opening; Measurement method; Porosity; Comparative study; Linearization
• ISSN: 0167-6105; 1872-8197
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jweia.2011.09.002

A simplified and computationally efficient model of internal pressure response of a building with a dominant opening and background leakage is presented based on certain simplifications shown to be adequate for all practical purposes. The presented model adequately linearized is used to develop closed form non-dimensional design solutions that can be used to estimate the ratio of internal to external pressure fluctuations and gust factors for a range of building volumes, opening sizes and porosity ratios. Experiments carried out with different combination of leakages in the presence of dominant openings of various sizes are used to justify the simplifications adopted in the derivation of the model and validate the model predictions. A performance analysis of the model carried out in conjunction with some approaches found in the literature on benchmarking data exhibits the relative advantage of the model in terms of accuracy, practical usage and computational expense.
► Internal pressure response of leaky buildings with dominant openings. ► Simple and computationally efficient but reasonably accurate analytical model. ► Damping of helmholtz resonance by background leakage. ► Closed form non-dimensionalized design solutions. ► Quasi-steady behavior of the lumped leakage system. ► Wind tunnel experiments to validate the model predictions.