Wind field reconstruction of cooling towers based on the radial basis function

The radial basis function was adopted to reconstruct the wind field on the outer surface of a cooling tower from the result of a wind tunnel test. The relative errors of wind pressure coefficients of windward and leeward points at throat height before and after the reconstruction were compared at every sample point. The results show that most relative errors are less than 5% when the shape parameter C is equal to 0.5 Cmax, where Cmax is the maximum value of C. The reconstruction results at several meridian lines and latitude lines were compared with those obtained from the rigid-model wind pressure test. The results show that the distribution of wind pressure coefficients is consistent before and after the reconstruction. The effect of three different values of C in the radial basis function on the reconstructed wind field is analyzed. The results show that among the reconstruction results obtained from the three values of C, the reconstruction effect is the best when C is equal to 0.5 Cmax. The reconstructed wind fields with two densities of reconstruction points were built up and compared with each other. The results in which the characteristics of reconstructed wind field is unchanged are obtained. This provides the basis for optimizing the transient structural dynamic response analysis in future studies. The research of this paper shows that the wind field reconstruction method based on the radial basis function is effective and simple. © 2019, Engineering Mechanics Press. All right reserved.