Wind loading and structural response

Lecture 19 Dr. J.D. Holmes

Tall buildings

Tall buildings
Very wind-sensitive in synoptic winds (including hurricanes)

Stimulated development of boundary-layer wind tunnel

Resonant dynamic response for along- and cross-wind very significant (> 100
metres)
(Rule-of-thumb first mode frequency : 46/h Hertz (h in metres) )

Sometimes torsional response is significant depending on geometry and

structural system

Usually governed by serviceability response (peak accelerations and

deflections in top floors)

Cladding pressures can be v. high especially at unusual corners and change

of cross section

Tall buildings
Empire State Building - full-scale and wind-tunnel studies in 1930s

Uh

Y
(N-S)

N-S

1.0

wind

x10

0.5
EW

X
(E-W)

10x

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

Angle of attack - degrees

- Mean deflection (inches)

Uh - Mean wind speed at 1250 feet in MPH (uncorrected)

Much stiffer in east-west direction

Tall buildings
Commerce Court building, Toronto, Canada - 1970s
Full-scale and wind-tunnel measurements of local cladding pressures and
overall building response (accelerations)

Wind
pressure

Studies of local pressure peaks and implications for glass design :

Time (minutes)

Acceleration measurements showed significance of torsional component (twist)

1/200 scale aeroelastic model showed good agreement with full scale

Tall buildings
World Trade Center New York 1973-2001

First buildings to be tested in a turbulent

boundary-layer flow wind tunnel (mid 1960s)

Tall buildings
Flow around a tall building :

Tall buildings
Pressure fluctuations on a tall building :

(movie by Shimizu Corporation, Tokyo, Japan)

Tall buildings
Pressure fluctuations on a tall building :

(movie by Shimizu Corporation, Tokyo, Japan)

Tall buildings

Cladding pressures :
Cp (t)

Cp

Time

Four values of pressure coefficients :

Cp

p p0
1
a U h2
2

Cp Cp

p 2
1
a U h2
2

C
p

p p 0
1
a U h2
2

Cp

p p0
1
a U h2
2

Tall buildings
Square cross section - height/width =2.1
Windward wall :

Cp

Cp

C
p

0.8
1.8

stagnation
point 0.8h

-0.2
0.2

0.4

1.6

0.0

0.6

0.2

-0.4

minimum

1.4

-0.2
-0.4

1.0

1.2

1.0

maximum

Tall buildings
Square cross section - height/width =2.1
Side wall (wind from left) :

Cp

Cp

C
p

-2.4

-0.9

-2.2

0.6

-2.0

-0.5

0.4

-2.0
-0.8
-0.8

-0.7

-0.6

mean Cps :
-0.6 to -0.8

-0.6

-2.2

-1.8
-2.6

-2.4
-2.6

-2.8

-2.8

0.2
0.0

-3.2

-3.0
-3.4

-0.9

-0.5

-3.8
-2.4

largest minimum Cp : -3.8

Tall buildings
Square cross section - height/width =2.1
Leeward wall :

Cp

Cp
-1.6
-0.45

-0.45
-0.4

C
p
-1.6

-1.4

-1.4
-1.2

-0.35
-0.1
-1.6

-1.6

mean Cps :
-0.35 to -0.45
largest minimum Cp : -1.6

Tall buildings
Glass strength under wind loading
Glass strength is dependent on duration of loading :
Microscopic flaws on tension side grow at a rate dependent on local
stress
Accumulated damage at constant temperature and humidity
(Browns integral) :
n

D s (t ) dt
T

s(t) is stress; T is total time over which it acts; n is a high power (15 to 20)

Tall buildings
Glass strength under wind loading
Under wind loading p(t) : assume s(t) = K[p(t)]m/n

(nonlinear)

E{D} K E{ p (t ) }dt
T

E{D} KT ( U ) C p f Cp (C p )dC p
1
2

i.e. mth moment of probability density function of Cp

Tall buildings
Glass strength under wind loading
Glass testing is usually carried out with a linearly increasing ramp load :
pmax
load

failure

time

damage produced by 1-minute ramp load :

D K

60

60.p max
pmax .t

dt K
(1 m)
60

pmax is specified load in glass design charts

Tall buildings
Glass strength under wind loading
writing pmax as Ck. (1/2)a U2 , where Ck is an equivalent glass design
pressure coefficient, and equating damage in ramp load test to that in 1
hour (3600 sec.) of wind :

K.60. Ck . a U 2
2

(1 m)

K (3600) a U 2
2

C p f Cp (C p ) dC p

Ck 60(1 m) C p f Cp (C p )dC p

1/ m

Ck = equivalent glass design pressure coefficient - gives pressure which

produces same damage in 1 hour of wind loading as that produced by a 1minute ramp load
Ck is approximately equal to the peak pressure coefficient during the hour
of storm winds

Tall buildings
Glass strength under debris impact
Glazing is vulnerable to damage and failure by roof gravel in the U.S.
ASCE-7 (6.5.9.3) requires glazing above 18.3 m above ground level, and
over 9.2m above gravel source, to be protected
Gravel acts like a sphere or cube will only go up if there is a vertical
wind velocity component

Tall buildings
Overall loading and dynamic response
cross wind

along wind

Cross-wind vibrations are usually greater than

along-wind vibrations for buildings of heights greater than
100m (330 feet)

Tall buildings
Overall loading and dynamic response
Standard deviation of deflections at top of a tall building :

a
x

A x
h
b
y
h

A y

Uh

n 1b
Uh

n 1b

kx

ky

along wind

cross wind

Ax and Ay - depend on building shape

kx - 2 to 2.5

ky - 2.5 to 3.5 (cross-wind)

b - average building density

n1 - first mode frequency - critical damping ratio

Tall buildings
Overall loading and dynamic response
Standard deviation of deflections at top of a tall building :
Circular cross section :

1000 x deflection
height
10

y
h
cross wind

wind

10 0
x
h

-1

10

10
1

15

Tall buildings
Overall loading and dynamic response
Deflections at top of a tall building :
Effect of cross section :

.003

Direction of motion

Peak deflection
height

.004

.002

.001

30

50
100
500 1000
Return period/years

Modification of corners are effective in reducing response

Tall buildings
Torsional loading and response
Two mechanisms :

applied moments from aerodynamic forces produced by non-uniform

pressure distributions or non-symmetric cross-sections

structural eccentricity between elastic center and geometric center

(a 10% eccentricity on a square building: doubled mean twist and increased
dynamic twist by 40-50%)

Tall buildings
Torsional loading and response
Mean torque coefficient :

0.2

0.1

0.2

0.4

f=

0.6

min

max

b
b

0.8

1.0

depends on ratio between minimum and maximum projected widths of

the cross section

Tall buildings
Interference effects
Surrounding buildings can produce increases or decreases in peak wind
loads :
increases
Building A
Y

increases

4b

Wind direction
V

3b

(X,Y)

+30%
+20%
0%

X
10b

+10% 2b

0%

+10%

-20%

+20%

-10%

8b

6b

4b

2b

-2b

Building B

decreases

shows percentage change in peak cross-wind response of building B, due to

a similar building A at position (X,Y)

Tall buildings
Damping
Damping is the mechanism for dissipation of vibration energy
Structural damping (Japanese buildings) :

x
1 0.014n1 470 t 0.0018
h
xt
1 0.013n1 400 0.0029
h
n1 = first mode natural frequency

reinforced concrete

steel frame

xt = amplitude of vibration

Tall buildings
Damping
Auxiliary damping :
Viscoelastic damper :
F/2

F/2

Steel flange

V.E. material

Centreplate

used on World Trade Center buildings, New York

Tall buildings
Damping
Auxiliary damping :
Tuned mass damper :
y 2 (t)

y 1 (t)

K1

K2
C1

M1

C2

M2

used on CityCorp building, New York

(M2=400 ton of concrete)

Tall buildings
Damping
Auxiliary damping :
Tuned liquid (sloshing) damper :

2R

used on Shin-Yokohama hotel, Japan

Tall buildings
Damping
Auxiliary damping :
Tuned liquid column damper :

X
X

Orifice

Flow

to be used on Eureka tower building, Melbourne, Australia (under

construction)

End of Lecture 19
John Holmes
225-405-3789 JHolmes@lsu.edu