Wind Effects on High-Rise Buildings: Database-Assisted Design Versus the High-Frequency Force-Balance Technique

Published

February 19, 2017

Author(s)

M Iancovici, Michael A. Riley, Fahim H. Sadek, Emil Simiu

Abstract

Database-assisted design (DAD) was originally developed for low-rise buildings. In this paper we show that it applies to flexible high-rise buildings as well, and that it has a number of significant advantages over the high frequency force balance (HFFB) technique. First, it eliminates the need for two sets of measurements, one providing the response at the base, and one providing mean pressure measurements needed to calculate the distribution over the building height of the wind-induced mean shears and overturning moments. Second, it provides realistic estimates of the distributions over the building height of the mean and fluctuating applied wind loads and torques. Third, it provides realistic estimates of modal torsions. Fourth, it naturally accommodates the case of buildings with nonlinear modal shapes or with more than one significant vibration mode. Fifth, it allows the direct and efficient application by the structural engineer of aerodynamic test results to obtain the requisite most unfavorable loading conditions experienced by structural members under the combined action of mean wind forces, fluctuating wind forces, wind-induced inertial forces, and gravity loads. We propose a simple utilization of interaction formulas that makes this application automatic and transparent. We illustrate the use of DAD and compare in a number of typical cases DAD results with results based on HFFB for a 198 m tall building for which simultaneous time histories of pressures at a relatively large number of taps on the building surface were measured at the Boundary Layer Wind Tunnel of the University of Western Ontario.

Conference Dates

June 2-5, 2003

Conference Location

Undefined

Conference Title

International Conference on Wind Engineering

Pub Type

Conferences

Keywords

building technology, database-assisted design, high-frequency force-balance, tall buildings, wind tunnels

Citation

Iancovici, M. , Riley, M. , Sadek, F. and Simiu, E. (2017), Wind Effects on High-Rise Buildings: Database-Assisted Design Versus the High-Frequency Force-Balance Technique, International Conference on Wind Engineering, Undefined (Accessed April 19, 2024)