ITERATIVE DESIGN OF RIGID STRUCTURES FOR WIND USING TIME SERIES OF DEMAND-TO-CAPACITY INDEXES

Published

February 1, 2017

Author(s)

Filmon Habte, Arindam Chowdhury, DongHun Yeo, Emil Simiu

Abstract

Estimates of wind effects on rigid buildings by database-assisted design (DAD) methods can be far more accurate than those based on information available in standards. An upgraded version of DAD is presented that streamlines the wind engineering/structural engineering components of the design process by allowing the direct computation of Demand-to-Capacity Indexes (DCIs). The computation achieves the rigorous combination of imperfectly correlated time series of wind forces and effects thus eliminating errors due to subjective estimates of combined effects. The basic approach being presented is applicable to any rigid building. The focus in this work is on simple buildings with gable roofs, portal frames, and bracing parallel to the ridge. Useful features of this work include: the capability to use the two largest building aerodynamics databases available worldwide; the use of large simulated extreme wind databases for hurricane- and non-hurricane-prone regions; a novel interpolation scheme allowing the design of buildings with dimensions not covered in the databases; an effective multiple-points-in-time algorithm for estimating peaks; and parameter-free methods for estimating DCIs with specified mean recurrence intervals. Case studies indicated that the proposed interpolation scheme was satisfactory provided that the differences between the dimensions and/or roof slopes of the reference buildings used in the interpolation are sufficiently small. A future effort is warranted to help determine whether aerodynamic databases satisfy this condition. The results obtained confirm the existence of serious inadequacies of the ASCE 7-10 envelope procedure, the mutual consistency of the two aerodynamic databases being used, and DAD's potential for practical use in structural design.

Citation

Engineering Structures

Pub Type

Journals

Keywords

Aerodynamics, database-assisted design, demand-to-capacity indexes, parameter-free statistics, structural engineering, wind climatology, wind engineering.

Citation

Habte, F. , Chowdhury, A. , Yeo, D. and Simiu, E. (2017), ITERATIVE DESIGN OF RIGID STRUCTURES FOR WIND USING TIME SERIES OF DEMAND-TO-CAPACITY INDEXES, Engineering Structures (Accessed April 25, 2024)