An experimental approach to the economical measurement of spatially-averaged wind loads

Abstract A pneumatic manifolding technique is suggested as an economical means for evaluating time-varying spatially-averaged pressure loads on tributary areas of design interest on building models. Results of some exploratory experiments are presented which show that mean and r.m.s. pressures can be determined accurately by such manifolds. Furthermore, the frequency response of the devices tested is virtually flat over the range for which the frequency response of the component tubes is flat, and shows little non-linearity. A pseudo-amplification of high frequency information takes place due to the finite grid of pressure taps; however, in practice this is shown to occur above much of the response range of interest, and to be correctable analytically.