NUMERICAL MODELING OF KELVIN WAVE EFFECTS ON WIND LOAD

Winds and their affected loading are becoming prominent in the 21st century, citing the growing impacts of climate change. While structural engineers and designers can calculate wind loads based on scaled-down static local wind conditions. However, the studies have to be done to represent the impact of equatorial waves (and consequent gravity waves) occurring at the synoptic scale on winds at the meso and local scales. As a result of the passing of equatorial waves in the transient phase, a dynamic load is formed on the structure. The authors have made a comprehensive study of changes in the local wind due to transient equatorial waves, taking a real-time event of Kelvin waves. Numerical models were developed to study the loads and vortex shedding on a high-rise building. The building is highly aero dynamical in design, yet it was found to be under significant structural deformation during the passage of the Kelvin wave. Hence, this study will prove to be useful to structural designers to accurately model wind environments and study the effects on structures in real-time by accounting for the effects induced due to equatorial waves.