CFD wind tunnel investigation for wind loads of steel television tower with grid structure

Television(TV) towers with grid structures serve as broadcasting frequency modulation or television transmission signals and provide sightseeing opportunities. Accurate wind load information is critical to the design of these towers to ensure their resistance to wind. Due to the scaling ratio of the test model, wind tunnel test can only determine the overall wind load, resulting in the loss of wind load information on specific rods. However, there is currently a lack of research on the wind loads of the specific rods of a core tube with a grid structure. This article focuses on this special topic. Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) technology, which was validated based on the Commonwealth Advisory Aeronautical Research Council (CAARC) model, was employed in simulation for a towering television tower with a grid structure. Wind load distributions of the grid structure and core tube were studied, including flow streamlines, velocity profiles and wind pressure distributions. The results indicate that the wind pressure distribution on the outer surface of the cross rods is similar at different heights. Net wind pressures of the rods in the flow separation zone are close to 0, which significantly reduces the across-wind load. Different wind direction angles significantly influence the wind load of the grid structure but slightly influence the core tube. The simulation results can provide a reference for wind load design of similar grid structures.