Comparison of high resolution pressure measurements on a high-rise building in a closed and open-section wind tunnel

Wind tunnel testing represents an established technique for the assessment of wind-induced pressure on cladding systems. Nonetheless, some physical events, such as the pressure peaks that occur on a building’s lateral facades, are not fully understood. To enable detailed analysis of the nature of these pressure peaks, we performed high-resolution pressure measurements on a high-rise building in two different wind tunnels: the closed-circuit wind tunnel of Politecnico di Milano, and the open-circuit Wall of Wind facility at Florida International University. The objective of the paper is to present the experimental set-up and the high-resolution pressure data, and to investigate the characteristics of the extreme suction events at individual pressure taps and their relevance for cladding design. We first compare the two atmospheric boundary layers, and subsequently present the pressure coefficients statistics. Then, we present probability density functions of the local and area-averaged pressure coefficients and visualize the space-time characteristics of two peak events to investigate their relevance for cladding design. The experiments provide consistent results and exhibit two types of suction events: one is characterized by an extremely short duration and spatial extension, while the other impacts a larger portion of the facade.