Numerical Simulation Study of Aerodynamic Noise in High-Rise Buildings

Abstract

In order to study the aerodynamic noise on the surfaces of high-rise buildings under the action of strong winds, this paper numerically simulated the sound pressure field on the surface of a high-rise building using the large-eddy simulation method combined with the acoustic analog method of FW-H (Ffowcs Williams–Hawkings) equation and obtained the intensity radiation distribution of sound pressure on the surface of the building to further identify the area with the maximum sound pressure intensity of the noise radiation and thus achieve the purpose of locating noise source. The accuracy of the numerical simulation results for aerodynamic noise obtained in this paper was then verified by comparing with the acoustic wind tunnel experimental results. The locations of noise source obtained by numerical simulation and acoustic wind tunnel experiment were in good agreement. The sound pressure intensity pulsation time course was measured by the acoustic wind tunnel experiment, and the noise sound pressure level spectrum of each part of the building surface was obtained by fast Fourier transform (FFT). Furthermore, the spectral characteristics of the noise sound pressure level were analyzed. The results of the sound pressure level spectrum of aerodynamic noise obtained from the numerical simulation were compared with the acoustic wind tunnel experimental results, which were found to be very similar. The analysis of the sound pressure level spectrum of aerodynamic noise on the building surface reveals that the numerical simulation results in the middle- and high-frequency bands of the spectrum are in good agreement with the acoustic wind tunnel experimental results, but there is a difference between those in the low-frequency bands and the acoustic wind tunnel experimental results. The microphone array used to locate the noise source in the acoustic wind tunnel was found to suffer non-eliminable measurement errors, which might be a potential reason for a reasonably slight difference between the experimental and numerical simulation results. The background noise in the low-frequency band of the acoustic wind tunnel sound pressure level spectrum was relatively large, while there was basically no background noise in the numerical simulation. This paper shows that the numerical simulation method combined with large-eddy simulation and acoustic analogy (FW-H) can calculate the aerodynamic noise intensity at various points on the surfaces of high-rise buildings and reasonably predict the location of sound source. In addition, the numerical simulation results are similar to the acoustic wind tunnel experimental results in most frequency bands.

Keywords

• high-rise buildings
• aerodynamic noise
• large-eddy simulation
• FW-H
• noise source identification