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Development of Database-Assisted Design for Wind Loads: Current and Future Research

Published

Author(s)

Emil Simiu, Fahim H. Sadek, S M. Diniz, Michael A. Riley, S Jang, L W. Lu

Abstract

Following Irminger s 1894 aerodynamic tests, Flachsbart s pioneering boundary-layer wind tunnel experiments in 1932, and University of Western Ontario (UWO) 1970 s tests, considerable progress has been achieved in low-rise building design for wind. Owing to the technological limitations of the time UWO tests were conducted for a single building plan (24.4 m x 38.1 m) and at low angular and spatial resolutions. Their results were used to create drastically simplifying standard aerodynamic tables and plots designed for slide-rule era calculations and entailing errors that can exceed 60 %. Significant improvements in main wind-load resisting system and component design can be achieved by using database-assisted design (DAD) and associated structural reliability tools, thus accounting realistically for the complexity of the wind loading as well as for the stochasticity and knowledge uncertainties affecting wind effects calculations. DAD has been used to achieve designs with superior risk-consistency, and to produce, for the first time in a wind engineering context, realistic estimates of ultimate limit states due to local or global buckling failure. In this paper we outline current and future research by NIST and other research institutions aimed at ensuring that an optimal scientific and technical base is available for the development of an effective, practical, and user-friendly DAD methodology. The research strives to bring together (1) wind engineering methods, including theory, numerical methods, and measurement, (2) structural analysis, both linear and nonlinear, (3) structural reliability methods, and (4) structural design. This effort is structured by the DAD framework and is anticipated to achieve major global benefits through significant reductions in material consumption for new buildings, more effective approaches to strengthening existing buildings, and massive reductions of losses due to windstorms.
Citation
UJNR Proceedings

Keywords

Building technology, database-assisted design, dynamic response, low-rise buildings, nonlinear behavior, purlins, structural reliability, ultimate limit states, wind loads

Citation

Simiu, E. , Sadek, F. , Diniz, S. , Riley, M. , Jang, S. and Lu, L. (2017), Development of Database-Assisted Design for Wind Loads: Current and Future Research, UJNR Proceedings (Accessed March 28, 2024)
Created February 19, 2017