Wind Wizard: Alan G. Davenport and the Art of Wind Engineering PDF
Preview Wind Wizard: Alan G. Davenport and the Art of Wind Engineering
WIND WIZARD WIND WIZARD Alan G. Davenport and the Art of Wind Engineering SIOBHAN ROBERTS PRINCETON UNIVERSITY PRESS PRINCETON AND OXFORD Copyright © 2013 by Siobhan Roberts Requests for permission to reproduce material from this work should be sent to Permissions, Princeton University Press Published by Princeton University Press, 41 William Street, Princeton, New Jersey 08540 In the United Kingdom: Princeton University Press, 6 Oxford Street, Woodstock, Oxfordshire OX20 1TW press.princeton.edu Jacket photograph by Ron Nelson. Courtesy of the estate of Ron Nelson. All Rights Reserved Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Roberts, Siobhan. Wind wizard : Alan G. Davenport and the art of wind engineering / Siobhan Roberts. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-691-15153-3 (hardcover : alk. paper) 1. Wind-pressure. 2. Davenport, Alan G. 3. Buildings—Aerodynamics. 4. Bridges—Aerodynamics. I. Title. TA654.5.R636 2012 624.1′75—dc23 2012015170 British Library Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available This book has been composed in Minion Pro Printed on acid-free paper. ∞ Printed in the United States of America 1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2 In memoriam Alan Davenport 1932–2009 CONTENTS I Sowing Wind Science 1 II Tall and Taller Towers 32 III Long and Longer Bridges 129 IV Project Storm Shelter 183 Acknowledgments 227 Notes 229 Interview Sources 243 Glossary 245 Bibliography 251 Index 267 WIND WIZARD I Sowing Wind Science N o sooner did the Tacoma Narrows Bridge—the world’s third longest suspension bridge, and the pride of Washington State—open in July 1940 than it earned its epitaphic nickname, “Galloping Gertie.” The 4,000-foot structure, its main span reaching 2,800 feet, twisted and bucked in the wind. The pronounced heave, or more technically speaking the longitudinal undulation, caused some automobile passengers to complain of seasickness during crossings. Others observed oncoming cars disappearing from sight as if traveling a hilly country road. By November 7, amid 39-mile-an-hour winds, the $6,400,000 bridge wobbled and flailed, then rippled and rolled, then twisted like a roller coaster, until in its final throes it plunged, with a beastly roar, 190 feet into the waters of Puget Sound. See Glossary for definitions Speaking to a New York Times reporter the day after the collapse, Leon S. Moisseff, the bridge’s designer and engineer, was at a loss to explain the cause, placing blame on “a peculiar wind condition.” Wind engineer Alan G. Davenport, founder of the Boundary Layer Wind Tunnel Laboratory at the University of Western Ontario, often summoned the memory of the Tacoma Narrows Bridge disaster as a cautionary tale. “Most features of this disaster are too familiar to bear repeating,” he told his audiences, whether assembled at technical lectures or at popular talks. Both occasions always included screenings of grainy film footage capturing the bridge misbehaving as though
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