On three-dimensionality of shelterbelt structure and its influences on shelter effects

Natural shelterbelts, unlike planar barriers, have a certain width, within which interactions among wind speed, drag force and pressure perturbations create a net sheltering effect. The variations of flow, drag force, permeability, and pressure perturbation for shelterbelts of different widths and different horizontal structures are numerically studied, and their influences on shelter efficiency are discussed. Comparisons are made of fourteen medium-dense shelterbelts, with the same overall leaf-area, that differ only in width or horizontal distribution of leaf-area density. The simulated results are consistent with both field observations and wind-tunnel measurements.The simulations demonstrate that the total drag force of the entire shelterbelt varies little with changes in width and structure. The results also show that shelter distance and the overall average wind speed reduction decrease only by 15–18% as width increases by a factor of 100, and changes even less for different internal structure. However, width greatly affects the location of minimum wind speed, pressure perturbation, and the permeability of shelterbelts. Horizontal changes of wind speed inside the uniform shelterbelts have four different patterns, which depend on shelterbelt width and height. The absolute pressure perturbation significantly decreases with increasing width. A possible cause of the insensitivity of shelter efficiency to width and internal inhomogeneous structure is the compensation between the effects of permeability and pressure perturbation on shelter efficiency.