More sophisticated wind loading on cylindrical structures?

[barrind]

In the past we have applied wind loading on cylindrical structures by applying the equivalent dynamic pressure on a flat plate of the same projected area as a surface traction load on the wind facing half of the model. This pressure is derived from BS6399. We have basicaly used to standard to derive a single pressure value based on the wind velocity and the effective height and applied that as a single traction load for the full height in the model, using the "general" option. Reading into the standard further the actual nature of the effects of wind are more subtle, in that there appears to be a variation with height and also variation around the cirumference due to local suction effects. These variations look quite complex to achieve in abaqus so I was wondering what strategies other people use when appling wind loading in abaqus?

 

[brep]

You could check out *AQUA (Section 6.10.1 Abaqus/Aqua analysis in the V6.7 Analysis User's Manual).

Otherwise this might be a case for FSI (fluid structure interaction) where you couple Abaqus to a CFD code such as StarCD, Acusolve etc. Section 13.1.1 of the Analysis User's Manual has a discussion of various Co-Simulation techniques.