Building-wind interaction in tall buildings

The most important factor affecting the design of tall building is the wind effect. The importance of wind is higher especially in orthogonal buildings compared with the buildings of oval and circular plans. Pressure on upstream face increases the lateral displacements and along-wind accelerations. In addition, possible vortex shedding in the transverse direction may cause cross-wind accelerations. Tensile stresses (suction) occur on back and transverse surfaces, and push outward the claddings. In some extreme cases, Vortex shedding may cause the resonance risk endangering the structure. By taking surrounding buildings into consideration as well, the magnitude and direction of wind may change and cause negative effects on tall building, its surrounding, and pedestrians. In this thesis, by addressing current literature, the effect of surrounding buildings and building form on wind fluctuations, the choice of structural system type and lateral displacements in longitudinal and transverse directions are investigated via wind-structure interaction simulation programs such as Cradle scStream, Robot Structural Analysis. The loading on cladding, the effectiveness of the actual cladding designs, and appropriate connection choice are discussed in detail. Theoretical wind loads acting on the structure cladding is determined according to ASCE 7-10; and the theoretical compressive and tensile loads per unit area are compared with the results of the simulation program.