From experimental wind tunnel to wind-structure interaction simulations of a shell structure

This paper studies the transition from downscaled wind tunnel testing to prototype scale numerical simulations. The study is performed using OpenFOAM as fluid solver, EMPIRE as coupling tool, and Carat++ as the structure solver. The current work aims at finding sufficient settings for wind-structure interaction simulations. Also, the efficiency of the software chain to simulate natural wind flow is approved. For this purpose, different flow conditions such as uniform, atmospheric boundary layer (ABL), and flow behind a cube (structure is positioned in the wake region behind a cube) are simulated. These complicated, unsteady, and recirculating flows are simulated to study the aeroelastic effects on light weight shell structures. Wind-structure interaction simulations are performed where the dynamics of the structure play a crucial role in the wind effects. An Aluminum shell structure was tested in the wind tunnel to have an experimental benchmark for aeroelasticity. Throughout spectral analysis of structure vibrations and statistical evaluation of forces, the modeling approach shows a very good agreement with the experimental results. Finally, scaling issues represent a great challenge to wind tunnel testing especially when it comes to lightweight structures. Whilesignificantly, numerical simulations are shown to be an efficient tool for the prediction of wind loading on structure under different wind conditions.