Pressure distributions on a cube in a simulated thunderstorm downburst, Part A: Stationary Downburst Observations

Thunderstorms are responsible for a large amount of wind-induced damage around the world. It is known that the wind characteristics in thunderstorms, particularly downbursts, differ significantly from those of synoptic scale boundary layer winds. This paper describes a study aimed at simulating the flow structure in a downburst and obtaining the pressure field on a cube immersed in such a flow. Part A presents the data obtained from a stationary wall jet simulation of a thunderstorm downburst, while Part B presents the data from a moving downburst simulation. The pressure distributions on the cube are compared with data from uniform and boundary layer flows. © 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.