Building Aerodynamics
Written specifically for practicing Architects and Engineers, as well as students, this thorough guide explains topics such as wind, wind environments, ventilation, fire, and sailing, and the relevant expressions they present.
TABLE OF CONTENTS Building Aerodynamics
Chapter 1: The Wind
"The wind bloweth where it will" and "The Lord tempereth the wind to the shorn lamb" are two misconceptions. Man can have an effect, but he has to understand the wind and its interactions first.
For a real understanding of the wind, the reader should consult books on Meteorology, in this chapter only the briefest of outlines will be given, sufficient to understand the rest of the book. The application of knowledge about the wind to wind engineering is contained in Section 1.5.
1.1 Global Circulation.
The wind is generated by the differential heating of the atmosphere by the sun. As the sun's rays approach the earth, most of the solar energy of a wavelength which can be absorbed by the atmosphere is absorbed by the air in the mesosphere (between 80 and 50 kilometres from the surface of the earth, and where the assumption that air is a continuum is first tenable). Thereafter (between 50 and 25 km from the surface of the earth) the sun's rays have no energy which can be absorbed by the air and the air temperature decreases towards the ground: this region is called the Stratosphere. Below this altitude (25 to 10 km.) the temperature remains constant, this is called the Tropopause. The sun's rays then continue downwards until they encounter either cloud or the earth's surface, when the remaining energy is absorbed and re-radiated at frequencies which can be absorbed by the air. Consequently, beneath the tropopause, the temperature of the air is...
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