Wind effect on milad tower using computational fluid dynamics

Abstract

Abstract Milad tower is located in Tehran, Iran, and is a 436‐m telecommunication tower ranked as the fourth tallest structure in the world. Because of its specific use and also because of highly sensitive communication devices installed on the tower, nonlinear deformations under future severe winds and earthquakes should be studied. In this paper, a comprehensive study is carried out to investigate the effect of wind on this tower. The techniques of computational fluid dynamics, such as large eddy simulation (LES), Reynolds Averaged Navier–Stokes Equations (RANS) model and so on, were adopted in this study to predict wind loads on and wind flows around the building. The calculated results are compared with those of wind tunnel test. It was found through the comparison that the LES with a dynamic subgrid‐scale model can give satisfactory predictions for mean and dynamic wind loads on the specific structure of Milad tower, while the RANS model with modifications can yield encouraging results in most cases and has the advantage of providing rapid solutions. Furthermore, it was observed that typical features of the flow fields around such a surface‐mounted bluff body standing in atmospheric boundary layers can be captured numerically. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.