Analysis and wind-tunnel simulation of pedestrian-level winds in San Francisco

Abstract The city of San Francisco enacted a pedestrian-level wind ordinance as part of its city and county municipal code in 1985. The purpose of this paper is to present in engineering detail the wind-tunnel testing procedure and associated analysis which allows scaling of the wind-tunnel measurements. This technique uses site specific meteorological weather data, coupled with the wind-tunnel data, to predicted full-scale wind speeds. The full-scale speeds are presented in terms of 10% exceeded equivalent wind speeds as required by the wind ordinance. Also, a description of the wind-tunnel facility in which many of the pedestrian-level wind studies are carried out is presented.