THE DECUMANO of EXPO 2015

The first structure object of wind tunnel measurements designed for EXPO 2015 in Milan was the tensile structure covering the main the main street of the area. The so-called Decumano, crosses the whole site from east to west for one and a half kilometers. On either side of the Decumano, are the national pavilions of the participant countries, and of 130, around 60 will develop a self-built pavilion.

The tests were designed in order to quantify the wind-load on the tensile structure composing in equal modules the entire walkway strip. The wind action is transmitted from the roofing elements to structural elements sustaining them. The physical model was numerically modelled and prototyped directly in the laboratory and several combinations (number) were tested in order to take into account all the possible load configurations. The net pressures were recorded by instrumenting the thin covering elements on the two sides of the layer.

The test were conducted in smooth and turbulent (reproducing by scaling the boundary layer) flow conditions.