The Measurement of Turbulence in a City Environment

Abstract

The increasing requirement for data about turbulence in a city environment, particularly in relation to building design and the imminent operation of aircraft from this environment, has prompted the measurement of the structure of wind at a site in Melbourne, Australia. Fast response propellor-type anemometers located at three heights on an 18.5 m tower were used. Data on the frequency distribution of gusts, the intensity of turbulence, the surface drag coefficient, and the spectra of turbulence are presented. It is concluded that the turbulence is predominantly of mechanical origin, and thus dependent on terrain roughness. The spectra are found to be best described in wavenumber space and scaled by variance.