Near ground wind characteristics during typhoon Meari: Turbulence intensities, gust factors, and peak factors

Wind data were collected during the 2011 typhoon Meari at heights of 10, 20, 30, and 40 m above the ground using a 40 m high anemometer tower in the coastal area near Shanghai Pudong International Airport. Wind speeds and directions, turbulence intensities, gust factors, and peaks were analyzed using the time records of wind speed. The results show that turbulence intensity components in longitudinal, lateral, and vertical directions decrease with mean wind speed, regardless of elevations, and the turbulence intensities are in a linear relationship with mean wind speeds. The ratios of three turbulence intensity components (i.e. I (u), I (v), I (w)) at heights of 10, 20 and 40 m were calculated and equal to be 1:0.88:0.50, 1:0.84:0.57, and 1:0.9:0.49, respectively. In addition, the gust factors in three directions exhibit a reduction with increasing mean wind speed. The peak factors at different heights show a similar trend and slightly decrease with mean wind speed; average peak factors for all 10-min data from Typhoon Meari are 2.43, 2.48, and 2.47, respectively.