Wind-tunnel testing of sports stadia to optimise their use and safety

Abstract

In recent years large-scale global sports events and related ventures have received significant international media coverage and socio-economic support from the hosting countries. This is especially evident in respect of all recent Olympic and FIFA tournaments for which in many cases several large and innovative sports facilities have been constructed. Owing to their size, these structures generate wind-related environment and loading interactions of significant magnitude. The interactions are determined by the structures' architectural form, as well as by the climatic and local conditions. Wind-related interactions include the environmental impact of wind within the structures' surroundings, environmental conditions over the pitch and grandstands, and the effect of wind loadings on roofs and other large elements (e.g. curtain walls). In view of the implications of failure, most, if not all, of the new sports stadia all over the world are subjected to comprehensive specialist wind studies, based on wind-tunnel testing and, in some cases, also to supplementary computational fluid dynamics (CFD) modelling of specific elements.