Wind Modeling

Project Highlights

CJS called and asked if we could determine why an entrance to one of their newly constructed campus housing facilities (Village Center at SUNY Fredonia) has issues with high winds. Main entrance doors were being ripped off the hinges.

Along with the help of CJS, we modeled the existing scenario, determined the prevailing wind directions which were causing issues, and modeled multiple scenarios which could be constructed to remediate the high wind issue at the entrance.

Three Cases were evaluated. The 1^st Case was the existing condition used to determine the prevailing wind direction which was causing the issues. The 2^nd Case used a wind wall upwind of the entrance as well as a 10ft x 16ft arborvitae tree wall to break up incoming wind. The 3^rd and final Case used a store front which was perpendicular to the building entrance.

The 3^rd Case was recommended: Case 3 appears to offer a valid solution to the problem of high winds in the general tunnel area. Based on the results of the simulation, the construction of a storefront wall in the tunnel will attenuate the high wind gusts observed in both the current scenario (Case 1) and in the wind wall scenario (Case 2). Prevailing wind directions that caused issues in Case 2 (155°, 165°, 175°) did not appear to cause high wind velocities at the existing exterior door location or the proposed storefront wall door location.