DNW’s capabilities and expertise in the field of environmental engineering are extremely broad and versatile. Projects involve wind engineering, maritime engineering and sports. Consultancy often plays an important role in the relationships with customers.
Wind engineering
Wind engineering projects address a variety of issues, for instance:
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Wind loads on buildings, structures and structural elements |
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Wind effects such as vibrations of bridges exposed elements such as sun shields |
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Noise production from wind |
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Dispersion of exhaust gases from vehicles, buildings and ships |
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Wind climate measurements at pedestrian level height near buildings |
Maritime engineering
DNW’s maritime engineering projects focus on wind loads and current loads on a wide variety of ships and offshore structures. Maritime projects also investigate the dispersion of exhaust gases. A special area of investigation involves helicopter operations on board ships. In this context, DNW has developed an extensive test program in cooperation with engineers from the helicopter flight department of NLR. For non-military ships and offshore structures DNW often cooperates with MARIN, a well-known research institute in Wageningen, the Netherlands, which is consulted by clients from all over the world.
Sports
The capabilities of DNW’s LST wind tunnel can also be applied in various sports. DNW recently investigated the following sport disciplines: speed skating, motor racing, bob sleighing, speed skiing and race cycling.
Consultancy
DNW experts frequently apply their specific knowledge in consulting activities regarding fluid dynamic problems outside the regular scope of the wind tunnel investigations.
A relevant example is DNW’s involvement in rules and codification processes, such as the development of the NEN 8100 standard regarding wind comfort and wind danger in the construction industry and the CUR 103 standard regarding wind tunnel investigations for the determination of design wind loads.
Equipment
All environmental engineering tests are carried out in the LST. A wide range of measurement techniques enable DNW to measure forces and moments, pressures, wind velocities, noise and tracer gas concentrations.
Special equipment includes:
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Standen spires in combination with a barrier and various surfaces, aimed at simulating atmospheric boundary layers with various roughness values |
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A continuously traversing rake with 18 |
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directional probes to scan the complete wind velocity vectors in a plane |
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An acoustic wall array with approximately 100 microphones to scan the distributive sound production of a test object |
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Lasers and dedicated video equipment for laser light screen technique and Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV) |
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Hot wire anemometry for turbulence measurements |
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