Experimental Study about the Wind Shielding Capabilities of Blast Fences

Blast fences are used at airports to protect humans from jet blasts. As pertinent design data are too scarce, model experiments were conducted at a scale of 1/6. In a preliminary experiment without a fence, we simulated the spatial mean wind speed distribution due to the jet blast, which previously had been measured at an airport. Then various configurations of fences were studied. A number of interesting results were obtained, one of which is the following. When a long fence was placed perpendicular and symmetrical with respect to the oncoming jet at a distance of 50m (full scale) from the engine, the fence lifted the jet up into the air, and no significant reattachment of the jet to the ground surface was observed. This pattern occurred for all fence types studied.