**Abstract**

Experimental studies on wind engineering require the use of different types of physical models of boundary layer flows. Small-scale models obtained in a wind tunnel, for example, attempt to reproduce real atmosphere phenomena like wind loads on structures and pollutant dispersion by the mean flow and turbulent mixing. The quality of the scale model depends on the similarity between the laboratory-generated flow and the atmospheric flow. Different types of neutral atmospheric boundary layer (ABL) including full-depth and part-depth simulations are experimentally evaluated. The Prof. Jacek Gorecki wind tunnel of the UNNE, Argentina, and the Prof. Joaquim Blessmann closed-return wind tunnel of the UFRGS, Brazil, were used to obtain the experimental data. Finally, some recent wind engineering applications of this type of physical wind models are shown.

**Keywords:** wind tunnel, turbulence, aerodynamic loads, atmospheric dispersion, physical simulation
