Towards practical use of LES in wind engineering

This paper reviews large-scale computing results currently obtained by the large eddy simulation (LES) technique for various wind engineering problems. The LES or direct numerical simulation (DNS) techniques should be used to numerically simulate unsteady flow phenomena. LES is appropriate for wind engineering applications because its computational power and memory requirements are reasonable. The present study discusses the applicability of LES to several issues such as wind-resistant design, prediction of wind velocity affected by terrain or ground surface conditions, and estimation of turbulence structures and atmospheric diffusion in urban areas. Thus far, numerical validation has been performed mainly by comparison with experimental data. However, when considering the complexity of actual conditions and the natural wind environment, direct comparison with full-scale measurement data is very important in all cases to verify the effectiveness of LES in wind engineering.