This paper presents wind tunnel measurements of pedestrian wind conditions in passages between various configurations of two long narrow perpendicular buildings in open country exposure. The investigated parameters are passage width, building height and wind direction. The measurements were made along the passage centerline. The aim of this paper is to provide more insight in the pedestrian wind conditions in these basic building configurations, to address some contradictory statements reported in the literature and to provide detailed experimental data for computational fluid dynamics (CFD) validation. The results show that the wind speed amplification factors in diverging passages are generally larger than in converging passages. It is also shown that the maximum wind speed amplification factors increase monotonically with decreasing passage width, contrary to some general building design guidelines proposed in the past for such building configurations. Significant issues concerning the use of the experimental data for CFD validation are also discussed.

The Venturi effect refers to the increase in fluid speed due to a decrease of the flow section in confined flows. The wind speed conditions in converging and diverging passages between perpendicular buildings are studied with computational fluid dynamics to investigate the extent to which the so-called Venturi effect is present in the passages. Model validation is performed by comparing the numerical results with wind tunnel measurements. The validated model is employed for a detailed investigation of the wind speed and the flow rate in the passages for a wide range of passage widths. The simulations show an increase in wind speed near ground level, but a decrease of horizontal wind speed in the upper part of the converging passages. The reason is the wind-blocking effect, which causes a large part of the oncoming wind to flow over and around the buildings, rather than being forced through the passage. Due to this effect, the flow rates through the converging passages are consistently lower than the free-field flow rate, implying that the term Venturi effect is less applicable for such building configurations.

The paper presents the results of a study that investigated the effects of wall porosity, inlet-to-outlet-ratio, opening location, and blockage on internal pressure in buildings with large façade openings located on opposite or adjacent walls considering data from simultaneous measurements on multiple internal pressure taps. The study found that the internal airflow field has a significant effect on mean and peak values of internal pressure, which is not uniform for configurations with wall porosity higher than 10% and openings located on adjacent walls. Peak internal pressure coefficients were found to exceed (1) the recommended ASCE 7-10 value for all configurations tested with inlets located above the midheight of the building and particularly those with inlet-to-outlet-ratios equal to 1 and (2) the recommended design value for building category 3 for configurations with openings located above the midheight of the building, leeward wall outlets, and inlet-to-outlet-ratios greater than 2.

Solar collector or photovoltaic (PV) systems placed on building roofs have been used extensively in recent years. These systems are sensitive to wind loading but design standards and codes of practice offer little assistance to the designers regarding provisions for wind-induced loading. The paper reports on a detailed literature survey, which has reviewed and compared the findings of some of the most recent and older experimental and numerical studies carried out for different solar collector system configurations. Results show significant differences among different studies, some of which correspond to similar configurations. Comparisons are made in terms of mean and, if available, peak pressure coefficients for different wind directions. The data are organized separately for solar collectors on flat and pitched roofs. Also the slope of the collector, as well as its location on the roof, has been taken into account. The review explains clearly the lack of design provisions in wind loading standards and codes of practice. It would indeed be very difficult to yield to an acceptable set of design provisions for solar collector and PV systems. The paper concludes that a new comprehensive study would be necessary in order to put together a set of provisions for different configurations including both point and area-averaged loads.

A comprehensive wind tunnel experimental study for $4:12$ -sloped hip roofs of L- and T-shaped low buildings was carried out in a simulated open terrain exposure to examine wind load characteristics and assess the applicability of wind provisions specified by the American wind load standard for such geometries. Results show that considering roof shape effects, hip roofs with rectangular or complex plans perform differently from rectangular gable roofs and incur smaller local and area-averaged suction. For L- and T-shaped hip roofs, distinctive pressure distributions occur, particularly along roof eaves near building re-entrant corners, where considerable suction appears for the wind blowing toward these building re-entrant corners. Furthermore, the building length-to-width aspect ratio effects are in most cases moderate. Generally, the wind load provisions of the American wind load standard are adequate for L- and T-shaped hip roofs, except for the edge zone along ridge and hip with large areas, for which measured values exceed the code-specified wind pressure coefficients. Finally, it was found more appropriate to utilize the entire L- or T-shaped roof dimensions, as opposed to the rectangular section only, to determine the least horizontal dimension of such nonrectangular hip roofs for the definition of roof zones.