Full-scale driving rain simulation in the Jules Verne Climatic Wind Tunnel

A project in the EU programmme Training and mobility of researchers - Access to large-scale facilities - Access for researchers

31-3-2000 --- 14-4-2000

Participating: Bert Blocken, Laboratory of Building Physics, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Kasteelpark Arenberg 51, BE-3001 Heverlee - Leuven, bert.blocken(à)bwk.kuleuven.ac.be. Fabien van Mook, Building Physics group, Technische Universiteit Eindhoven, Postbus 513, NL-5600 MB Eindhoven, famo(à)fago.bwk.tue.nl. Anneli Högberg/ Carl-Eric Hagentoft, Department of Building Physics, Chalmers Tekniska Högskola, Sven Hultins gata 8, SE-41296 Göteborg, +46-31-772.19.98, hagentoft(à)buildphys.chalmers.se. Jean-Paul Flori, Jules Verne Climatic Wind Tunnel, Centre Scientifique et Technique du Bâtiment, 11 rue Henri-Picherit, FR-44323 Nantes Cedex 3, flori(à)cstb.fr.

Photos

• Unpacking...

... that was the first thing we did of course. The picture shows the test building (2 x 3 x 2 m) with the (white) driving rain gauges on two sides.

Here is the test section of the wind tunnel:

• Test section

The wind tunnel was huge, as you can also see from the size of the...

• Ventilator

At the wind inlet...

• Lattices and roughness elements

... were placed to generate a wind profile.

The first measurements we did, were wind velocity measurements by ultrasonic anemometers. We could adapt the building configuration obtaining the following three configurations:

• Test house with a flat roof
• Test house with roof overhang
• Test house with pitched roof

For the driving rain tests the wind tunnel was equipped by a special...

• Installation for the generation of rain

Rain fall uniformity was tested by a very sophisticated method: buckets. ;-)

• Rainfall uniformity measurements by buckets (without wind)

We measured rain intensities at ground level by...

• Tipping bucket raingauge, IMK disdrometer and buckets

And driving rain was measured with 25 driving rain gauges built by the Catholic University of Louvain:

• Standard driving rain gauges

And we also investigated other driving rain gauges:

• Driving rain gauges of the Technical University of Denmark (left) and the Chalmers University (right)
• Driving rain gauge of the Eindhoven University of Technology, with rotating wiper
• Driving rain gauge of the CSTB (the oval thing) and the wall aperture of the Chalmers University

And here is a picture which shows the inside of the wall aperture:

• Drops at inside of the wall aperture

The gauges were logged by two computers inside the test house:

• Logging computers in the test house

But measurements with the standard driving rain gauges were obtained by weighing the reservoirs manually:

• Reservoirs of the standard driving rain gauges at the inside of the test building

After the measurements were done:

• Packing for transport (in the foreground you see the stuff of Fabien)

Back to home page http://sts.bwk.tue.nl/drivingrain/.

© 2000-2002 Fabien van Mook/ Fysische Aspekten van de Gebouwde Omgeving

First publication: May 2000.

Last update: 9 December 2002.