Engineering Structures 26 (2004) 1779–1794

www.elsevier.com/locate/engstruct

Full-scale measurements and numerical evaluation of wind-induced

vibration of a 63-story reinforced concrete tall building
Q.S. Li a,
, J.R. Wu a, S.G. Liang a,b, Y.Q. Xiao a,c, C.K. Wong a
a
Department of Building and Construction, City University of Hong Kong, 83 Tat Chee Avenue, Kowloon, Hong Kong
b
School of Civil and Building Engineering, Wuhan University, Wuhan 430072, China
c
School of Civil Engineering, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin 150090, China

Received 23 May 2003; received in revised form 7 May 2004; accepted 18 June 2004

Abstract

Guangdong International Building has a height of approximately 200 m with 63 stories. This paper describes some selected
results obtained from the full-scale measurements of dynamic behavior of this tall building. The dynamic characteristics of the
buildings are determined based on the field measurements and comparisons with those calculated from the computational model
of the buildings are made. The amplitude-dependent characteristics of damping obtained by the random decrement technique are
presented and discussed. In parallel with the field measurements, a series of wind tunnel tests are conducted to determine the
spectral model of across-wind force on rectangular tall buildings with various side and aspect ratios. The wind-induced responses
of the building in along-wind and across-wind directions are evaluated by random vibration method based on the established
spectral model of across-wind force. The serviceability of this building is discussed in detail on the basis of the computational
results.
# 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Keywords: Wind effect; Tall building; Vibration; Full-scale measurements; Wind tunnel test

1. Introduction The aim of the field scale measurement is to obtain

Guangdong International Building, which has a
height of approximately 200 m, was the tallest rein-
forced concrete building in China when it was built 10
years ago. The basic plan form of the building is essen-
tially square. This tall building has 63 above ground
floors and 3-story underground basements, as shown in
Fig. 1. The building construction consists of reinforced
concrete and curtain walls.
Guangzhou is located at the edge of the most active
typhoon generating area in the world. The 63-story
Guangdong International Building may be susceptible
to severe vibration induced by typhoons. In order to
examine the behavior of the Guangdong International
Building subjected to dynamic actions, full-scale
vibration measurement of the tall building was made.


Corresponding author. Tel.: +852-2784-4677; fax: +852-2788-
7612.
E-mail address: bcqsli@cityu.edu.hk (Q.S. Li).
0141-0296/$ - see front matter # 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.engstruct.2004.06.014
reliable field data which represent the wind-induced
responses and dynamic characteristics of the tall build-
ing. The monitoring of the structural behavior of the
building can provide important validation of design
procedures and assurance of acceptable behavior.
The wind-induced vibrations of tall buildings have
been found to occur in the along-wind and across-wind
directions as well as torsional mode. While several pro-
cedures, e.g., gust factor approach [1], have been
developed for predicting loads and response in the
along-wind direction, due to non-homogeneous press-
ure fluctuations in separated and wake regions, analyti-
cal formulation of across-wind and torsional forces
based on a gust factor approach has not been possible
yet. This lack of guidance may be significant because
across-wind force and response may be considerably
larger than along-wind force and response [2–4]. There-
fore, it is essential to acquire knowledge of wind-
induced across-wind responses of tall buildings. In the
absence of design guidelines, the across-wind forces
1780 Q.S. Li et al. / Engineering Structures 26 (2004) 1779–1794

conducted to determine the analytical spectral model of

across-wind force on rectangular tall buildings with
various side and aspect ratios. Meanwhile, a dynamic
analysis model of this tall building was established
based on the structural drawings. The wind-induced
responses of the tall building in the along-wind and
across-wind directions were evaluated by the random
vibration method based on the established spectral
model of across-wind force and the dynamic analysis
model.
For modern flexible and lightly damped buildings,
serviceability issues are of paramount importance and
occupant comfort is a major concern in the design of
tall buildings. The serviceability of this tall building is
discussed in detail on the basis of the computational
results. The main objective of this combined experi-
mental and numerical study is to further the under-
standing of the behavior of tall buildings to dynamic
wind action in order to apply that knowledge to
design.

2. Measurement arrangements

Two accelerometers were installed at the 62th floor

of the building to provide measurement of acceleration
responses. The accelerometers were placed orthogon-
ally along direction 1 and direction 2 as shown in
Fig. 2. Acceleration responses were continuously

Fig. 1. Side view of the main structure of the Guangdong Inter-

national Building.

acting on tall buildings usually must be determined by

a wind tunnel test. Therefore, in addition to the full- Fig. 2. Top view of the building and the location of the accel-
scale measurements, a series of wind tunnel tests were erometers.
 Q.S. Li et al. / Engineering Structures 26 (2004) 1779–1794
Fig. 3. Typical samples of the measurements of acceleration responses.
acquired and digitized at 30 Hz, amplified and low pass
filtered at 15 Hz before digitization. Fig. 3 shows the
typical samples of the acceleration measurements.
3. Spectral analysis of acceleration responses
A 3-h segment of acceleration response data
recorded in both directions were used in the present
analysis. Figs. 4(a) and 5(a) show the acceleration
response spectra measured in direction 1 and direction
2, respectively. In order to examine the participation of
the various modes of vibration, logarithm plots of the
acceleration spectra in the two directions are presented
in Figs. 4(b) and 5(b).
Figs. 4 and 5 showed the participation of the first
several modes in the acceleration response clearly.
Table 1 listed the natural frequencies of first three
modes in each direction obtained from the field mea-
surements. The finite element (FE) model of this build-
ing was established based on the design drawings and
the free vibration analysis of this building was numeri-
cally conducted by Rong [5] at the design stage of this
building. The calculated results and the differences
between the numerical results and the measurements
are also listed in Table 1 for comparison purposes.
From Table 1, it is found that the differences between
the calculated results and the measurements are in the
1781
range of 4.9–25.8%. Except the third mode in direction
2, the measured natural frequencies are larger than
those calculated. It is maintained that the difference
can be attributable to several reasons, including that
the effective mass of the building is less than that
assumed at the design stage and/or the effective stiff-
ness of the building is higher than that determined at
the design stage due to the contribution of non-struc-
tural components.
4. Probability analysis of acceleration responses
Knowledge of probabilistic characteristic of acceler-
ation responses of tall buildings is sometimes required
in the design of tall buildings. The shape of a prob-
ability density function (PDF) can be characterized by
its third and fourth central moments (l3 and l4) rela-
tive to the standard deviation value (r). For a normal
or Gaussian distribution, the skewness coefficient,
Sk ¼ l3 =r3 , and kurtosis coefficient, Ku ¼ l4 =r4 , are
equal to 0 and 3, respectively. Sk < 0 corresponds to
skewness to the left, while Sk > 0 to the right. Ku > 3
represents a distribution more peak at the center than
the Gaussian and Ku < 3 characterizes distributions
that are flatter at the center than the Gaussian. The
word ‘‘kurtosis’’ represents curvature of the PDF.
1782 Q.S. Li et al. / Engineering Structures 26 (2004) 1779–1794

Fig. 4. Power spectral density of acceleration of the building in direction 1.

Fig. 5. Power spectral density of acceleration of the building in direction 2.

 Q.S. Li et al. / Engineering Structures 26 (2004) 1779–1794
Table 1
The natural frequencies of several modes of the tall building
Mode 1
Direction 1 Mode 2
Mode 3
Mode 1
Direction 2 Mode 2
Mode 3
It has been recognized that the serviceability of tall
buildings is mainly affected by excessive acceleration
experienced at the top floors that may cause discomfort
to the occupants. Building acceleration is most appro-
priate for establishing a checking procedure for service-
ability requirements. This has made it necessary to
design tall buildings that will not exceed the specified
acceleration response levels. Therefore, knowledge of
probability distribution of acceleration response based
on the measured field data is useful for tall building
design.
The probability density functions of acceleration
responses, which were calculated from the 3-h record,
are shown in Figs. 6 and 7. Table 2 presents the calcu-
lated statistical parameters of the acceleration respon-
ses. It can be seen from Figs. 6 and 7 that the
probability density functions of acceleration in direc-
tion 1 and direction 2 are significantly different from
the Gaussian distribution in the regions of both tails.
In these regions, the actual probability distributions are
larger than those described by the Gaussian distri-
bution. This indicates a much higher probability for
the occurrence of larger acceleration response than that
predicted by a Gaussian PDF. From the results pre-
sented in Table 2, it is also clear that Gaussian distri-
bution is not suitable for describing the probability
distribution of acceleration responses in the regions of
both tails, because the kurtosis coefficients determined
from the measured field data are distinctly different
from 3.0. However, actually the distributions shown in
Figs. 6 and 7 do not start to diverge from the Gaussian
distribution until about 3.5 RMS values from the mean
acceleration response.
5. Amplitude-dependent damping characteristics of
the tall building
The dynamic response of a structural system is con-
sidered to be greatly affected by the amount of damp-
ing exhibited by each mode of vibration. Therefore, the
determination of damping ratio is very important in
exactly estimating responses of high-rise structures at
the design stage. Damping ratio was found as a non-
linear parameter, and increases with increasing ampli-
1783
Measurements (Hz) FEM results (Hz) Difference (%)
0.368 0.300 22.7
1.395 1.109 25.8
2.979 2.451 21.5
0.396 0.341 16.1
1.408 1.332 5.7
2.812 2.958 4.9
tude. Hart and Vasudevian [6] reported varying damp-
ing ratio values with amplitudes that increased under
earthquake excitation. This was one of the early repor-
ted investigations of amplitude-dependent damping of
buildings. Over the last three decades significant mea-
surements for structural damping have been made
throughout the world (e.g., [7–14]). However, our
literature review revealed that the amplitude-dependent
damping contained in the literature mostly concern
buildings in the vicinity of 40 stories or lower. Thus,
there is a serious scarcity of damping data for high-rise
buildings taller than 40 stories.
The measured acceleration data can be used to
obtain the dynamic characteristics of the building
(damping ratio, natural frequencies, etc.). The modified
random decrement technique developed by the authors
was employed in this study to evaluate the damping
ratio of this building. As commented by Jeary [15] and
Li et al. [16], the random decrement technique repre-
sents a quick and practical method for establishing the
non-linear damping characteristics. In order to obtain
the damping ratio of each mode, the measured signals
of acceleration responses were band-pass filtered before
processing the random decrement method to remove
the components not concerned with the mode under
consideration. The damping curves of the first two
translational modes in each direction evaluated from
the measured acceleration data are shown in Figs. 8
and 9, which comprise both structural damping and
aerodynamic damping.
Information on the amplitude-dependent damping
ratio obtained from the Guangdong International
Building should be very useful since similar measure-
ments are still very limited in the literature; in parti-
cular, the characteristics of amplitude-dependent
damping of higher modes have rarely been reported in
the past. The damping ratio curve (damping ratio ver-
sus amplitude) presented in Figs. 8 and 9 clearly dem-
onstrate non-linear energy dissipation characteristics of
the building. It is obvious that the damping ratio
increases with increase in amplitude. Lower values of
amplitude-dependent damping in the second mode in
comparison with the first mode in both directions was
observed.
1784 Q.S. Li et al. / Engineering Structures 26 (2004) 1779–1794

Fig. 6. Probability density functions of acceleration response in direction 1.

As the field measurements were conducted in weak
wind action conditions, the measured wind-induced
displacements atop the building were actually very
small. That is why relatively small values of damping
are shown in Figs. 8 and 9. Jeary [7] and Satake et al.
[14] proposed empirical formulas for predicting damp-
ing value at specified amplitude. Comparing with the
Jeary and Satake et al.’s damping models, the damping
ratios at zero amplitude measured from this tall build-
ing, as shown in Figs. 8 and 9, are relatively smaller
(about 0.11%), but the rates of increase of damping
ratio with amplitude are much higher than those
 Q.S. Li et al. / Engineering Structures 26 (2004) 1779–1794 1785

Fig. 7. Probability density functions of acceleration response in direction 2.

determined from the Jeary and Satake et al.’s models in

Table 2 the small amplitude region where the field measure-
Probabilistic characteristics of acceleration responses in directions 1 ments were made. If the damping ratios at zero ampli-
and 2 tude and the rates of increase of damping ratio with
Sk1 Ku1 Sk2 Ku2
amplitude estimated based on the measured acceler-
ation data are used to extrapolate the damping ratios
0.011 8.215 0.050 7.820
in the medium and high amplitude regions (such as the
1786 Q.S. Li et al. / Engineering Structures 26 (2004) 1779–1794

Fig. 8. Variation of damping ratio with amplitude of the building in direction 1.

Fig. 9. Variation of damping ratio with amplitude of the building in direction 2.

 Q.S. Li et al. / Engineering Structures 26 (2004) 1779–1794
tall building subjected to the design wind speeds with
various return periods, as specified in the China
National Standard GBJ9 [17]), the estimated damping
ratios would be in the same order as those determined
by the Jeary and Satake et al.’s models (e.g., 1–5%,
damping ratio of the first mode).
6. Serviceability analysis of the Guangdong
International Building
When the Guangdong International Building was
designed and constructed in the late 1980s, it was the
tallest building in China mainland. There was no
design code in China concerning criteria of occupancy
comfort for tall buildings at that time. Therefore, the
evaluation of occupancy comfort on this building was
not conducted at the design stage. However, the occu-
pancy comfort criterion is recently included in the
Technical Specification for Concrete Structures of Tall
Building (JGJ3-2002) of China [18] and it requires that
the maximum acceleration response atop a high-rise
building should not exceed the occupancy comfort cri-
teria. Based on the measured dynamic characteristics of
this tall building, such as the natural frequencies and
vibration mode shapes in both directions and the infor-
mation on structural dimensions and mass distribution
along the building height from the design drawings, the
computational model of this building was established
and was used for evaluation of wind-induced dynamics
response of the Guangdong International Building.
In order to establish spectral models of across-wind
loads on rectangular tall buildings, wind tunnel tests in
which the fluctuating wind pressures on a building
model were measured simultaneously were conducted.
The along-wind and across-wind acceleration responses
of this tall building subjected to different wind speeds
are numerically evaluated by utilizing the established
spectral models. From the numerical simulation results,
the serviceability analysis of this building is presented
in detail in the following parts of this paper.
6.1. The power spectra of across-wind force
It has been discussed that the along-wind force can
be treated satisfactorily by analytical method [1]. How-
ever, due to non-homogeneous pressure fluctuations in
separated and wake regions, analytical methods for
estimating across-wind forces and response have not
been possible yet. It has been recognized that wind tun-
nel test is the most effective way for evaluating across-
wind forces and response of tall buildings. Therefore, a
series of wind tunnel tests were conducted employing a
boundary layer wind tunnel of 1:4  1:4 m in the mea-
suring section, which is the property of China Aerody-
namic Research Centre. The profiles of the mean wind
speeds and turbulence intensities at various heights
1787
above the test section for the wind tunnel tests are illu-
strated in Fig. 10. The longitudinal velocity spectrum
of the boundary layer flows simulated in the wind tun-
nel tests was found to be in close agreement with the
von-Karman type spectrum. In order to provide com-
prehensive information on across-wind forces on rec-
tangular tall buildings with various side and aspect
ratios, several building models were made for the wind
tunnel tests including 3-D rectangular cylinders with
four kinds of side ratios, denoted as depth/width
ðD=BÞ ¼ 1:0; 2:0; 3:0 and 4.0, while two kinds of
heights, denoted as H¼ 0:4 and 0.8 m, were selected for
each cross-section of the models. It has been reported
that the wind-induced responses of a rectangular tall
building normally reach their maximum values when
one side of the building is perpendicular to wind attack
direction [4]. Therefore, in the wind tunnel tests, the
approaching flow was perpendicular to the side face of
each model. The models were made of balsa and their
natural frequencies were high enough to be regarded as
rigid models. Fluctuating wind pressures on the model
surfaces were measured simultaneously by pressure
transducers placed at five elevations. The instantaneous
across-wind force at each level on a building model can
be obtained by integrating the monitored fluctuating
pressures on the model surfaces simultaneously. After
the time-histories of the across-wind force at each level
were measured, RMS lift coefficients and power spectra
of across-wind forces were obtained by data processing
software, and the coherence functions of across-wind
forces between two levels were also estimated.
The across-wind force acting on rectangular cylin-
ders is primarily caused by random vortex shedding in
separated shear flow, it was verified from the experi-
ment results that the power spectrum of across-wind
force is affected greatly by the side ratio D=B of a rec-
tangular tall building (where D is the breadth of the
Fig. 10. Mean wind speed and turbulence intensity profiles.
1788 Q.S. Li et al. / Engineering Structures 26 (2004) 1779–1794

building which is parallel to wind attack direction, B is observed from Fig. 11 that the empirical formula fits
the width of the building perpendicular to wind attack with the results of the wind tunnel tests well. Therefore,
direction). For the Guangdong International Building, this empirical formula is adopted in this study for the
the side ratio is 37:0=35:1 ¼ 1:054, the aspect ratio is estimation of the across-wind acceleration response of
199:0=35:1 ¼ 5:68. Some typical examples of the power the Guangdong International Building.
spectra of across-wind force for rectangular building
models with 0:25 < D=B < 3 are shown in Fig. 11. To fit nSvv ðz;nÞ H ðC1 Þ 
n2
¼ A 2
an analytical expression to the experimental results, an r2 ð1 
n2 Þ þC1 
n2
empirical formula of the power spectrum of across- C20:50
n3
þ ð1  AÞ h i ð1Þ
wind force Svv ðz;nÞ for rectangular tall buildings with 2
1:56 ð1 
n2 Þ þC2
n2
various side and aspect ratios is presented below. It is

Fig. 11. 11 Comparison of across-wind force spectra between the proposed formula and the experimental results (D=B < 3).
 Q.S. Li et al. / Engineering Structures 26 (2004) 1779–1794 1789

Defining its standardized form fvv ðz;nÞ as expressed as

   z 2a  z 2a
  1
2 2
2 2 j
A n2
H ðC1 Þ 
Svi vj zi ;zj ;n ¼ qV 10 C L B hi hj
i
fvv ðz;nÞ ¼ 2 2 10 10
n ð1 

n2 Þ þC1 

n2 cij qffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
ð1  AÞ C20:50

n3 fvv ðzi ;nÞfvv ðzj ;nÞ ð9Þ
þ h i ð2Þ n
n 1:56 ð1 

2
n2 Þ þC2

n2
where a is the exponent of the wind velocity profile,
which is dependent on the ground surface roughness;
in which the parameters can be calculated by the fol-
10 is the mean wind speed at 10 m height; hi and hj
V
lowing equations: are the vertical dimensions of the i- and jth stories; zi
pffiffiffiffiffiffi and zj are the heights of the i- and jth floors from
H ðC1 Þ ¼ 0:179C1 þ 0:65 C1 ð3Þ ground level, respectively.
h i 6.2. The power spectra of fluctuating along-wind force
0:47ðD=BÞ2:8  0:52ðD=BÞ1:4 þ 0:24
C1 ¼  pffiffiffiffi ;
The spectral densities of fluctuating wind forces on
H= S
this tall building in the along-wind direction can be
C2 ¼ 2 ð4Þ described
  by the matrix Suu ðnÞ. The element Sui uj
 "
 2   # zi ;zj ;n in Suu ðnÞ is the cross-spectral density of along-
H D D wind forces acting on the i- and jth floors. It can be
A¼ pffiffiffiffi
0:118 þ0:358  0:214
S B B expressed as
"  2   #    a  z a
D D Sui uj zi ;zj ;n ¼ CD2 q2 V
2 hi hj z i j
10
þ 0:066 5:86 þ 0:894 ; 10 10
B B ð B=2 ð B=2
 
1 D S ð nÞ coh y;y0 ;zi ;zj ;n dy dy0 ð10Þ

<3 ð5Þ B=2 B=2
2 B
in which
where n denotes frequency, r is the root mean square
2 t2
4kV 10
(RMS) of the across-wind force at height z, S ð nÞ ¼ 4=3
ð11Þ

L B, q is air mass density, C
L is the nð1 þ t2 Þ
r ¼ ð1=2ÞqV 2 ðzÞC
RMS lift coefficient,
n ¼ n=ns ; ns ¼ St V ðzÞ=B is the is the Davenport spectral function of longitudinal fluc-
frequency of vortex shedding, St is the Strouhal num- tuating force [1], where k is the surface  drag coefficient

0
and t ¼ 1200n=V 10 ; coh y;y ;zi ;zj ;n is the spatial
bers, S is the area of cross-section, S ¼ B  D; cij is the
coherence function of across-wind force. coherence coefficient of the fluctuating along-wind
The empirical formulas of C
L ; St and cij are determ- forces and it is expressed as
ined as shown below: 0 h  2 i1=2 1
2 0 2 2
 3  2     B n C y ð yy Þ þC z i z z j C
D D D coh y;y0 ;zi ;zj ;n ¼exp@ 



  A;


C L ¼ 0:045 0:335 þ0:868 0:5 V ðzi Þþ V zj
B B B
 0:174 ð6Þ Cy ¼16; Cz ¼10 ð12Þ
 2  
D D
St ¼ 0:002 0:023 þ 0:105 6.3. The calculation of wind-induced acceleration
B B
1 D response of the Guangdong International Building
<
4 ð7Þ
2 B The structure of the Guangdong International Build-
"  #  
D 2  zi  zj  D ing is modeled as a multi-degree of freedom (MDOF)
cij ¼ exp  ; D¼ ;1< <4 ð8Þ system, the equation of motion of an MDOF system
7:7 B B
subjected to random wind forces is
The spectral density of fluctuating wind forces in the ½M f€yg þ ½C fy_ g þ ½K fyg ¼ fFðtÞg ð13Þ
across-wind direction can be described by the matrix
  where [M], [C] and [K] are nn order matrices of mass,
Svv ðz;nÞ. The element Svi vi zi ;zj ;n in Svv ðz;nÞ is the damping and lateral condensed stiffness of the structure
cross-spectral density of across-wind forces of the i- in the along-wind or across-wind direction, respectively
and jth floors. According to Eqs. (1)–(8), it can be (n is 63 in this case, which is the number of the total
1790 Q.S. Li et al. / Engineering Structures 26 (2004) 1779–1794

stories of this building). The vectors fy

€g and {F(t)} are expression of Eq. (17)
the corresponding acceleration and fluctuating along-
X
q
 2 1 X
n X
n
wind or across-wind force vectors, respectively. Since Syy ðyi ;xÞ ¼ /2ij Hj ðxÞ /kj /lj SFk Fl ðxÞ
the order of the matrices defined in Eq. (13) is high, the j¼1 ðMj
Þ2 k¼1 l¼1
method of mode superposition is used for calculating ð20Þ
the wind-induced vibration of this tall building.
Similarly, the PSD of the acceleration response y €i at
Assuming only the lowest q modes are considered in
the location of the ith floor (lump mass) of the building
the computation, then the structural displacement vector
would be:
{y} is decomposed into
X
q  2 1 X
n X
n
q n o
X S€y€y ð€yi ;xÞ ¼ x2j /2ij Hj ðxÞ /kj /lj SFk Fl ðxÞ
fyg ¼ ½U fUg ¼ / j uj ð14Þ j¼1 ðMj
Þ2 k¼1 l¼1
j¼1
ð21Þ
where ½U is a nq eigenvector matrix corresponding to
Acceleration response of a building structure under
the lowest q modes. {U} is the vector of modal ampli- wind action is usually assumed to be a zero-mean
tude and uj is the jth component of {U} corresponding stationary Gaussian random process, the RMS of € yi
to the jth vibration mode of the dynamic system. would be
Thus, Eq. (13) can be reduced into
sffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
ð ffi
      2  1
U€ þ ½M
1 C0 U _ þ x fUg ¼ ½M
1 ½U T fFg
r€yi ¼ S€y€y ð€yi ;xÞ dx ð22Þ
ð15Þ 0

where Assuming the peak factor of acceleration responses is

  la, then the maximum acceleration response € yi at
½M
¼ ½U T ½M ½U ; C 0 ¼ ½U T ½C ½U ð16Þ the location of the ith lumped mass of the building
 2 would be:
and x is the diagonal eigenvalue matrix with qq
sffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
ð ffi
order, the diagonal elements are the square of each cir- 1
cular natural frequency. If [C] is an orthogonal damp- a€yi ¼ la S€y€y ð€yi ;xÞ dx ð23Þ
0
ing matrix, then [C0] will be a diagonal matrix.
 
Assuming the jth diagonal elements of [C0] and x2 From the above equations, the maximum along-wind
are 2nj xj Mj
andx2j , respectively, according to random or across-wind acceleration response of this tall build-
ing subjected to different wind speeds can be evaluated
vibration theory, the power spectrum density (PSD) of
numerically.
the displacement response at the location of the ith
Considering that the Guangdong International
floor (lumped mass) of the building would be
Building is located in the central district of Guangzhou
q X
X q city, the terrain category of the building should belong
Syy ðyi ;xÞ ¼ /ij /ik Hj
ðxÞHk ðxÞSfj fk ðxÞ ð17Þ to dense urban or city center, e.g., terrain category D
j¼1 k¼1 specified in the China National Standard-GBJ9 Load
where Code for Building Structures (1987) [17]. The exponent
a of the mean wind speed profile is 0.3 for terrain cate-
1 X
n X
n
gory D, as specified in the Standard (GBJ9) [17]. The
Sfj fk ðxÞ ¼ / / SF F ðxÞ ð18Þ
Mj
Mk
i¼1 l¼1 ij lk i l design wind speeds with various return periods at 10 m
height in terrain category D in Guangzhou region and
in which SFi Fl ðxÞ is the cross PSD function of the fluc- atop the Guangdong International Building are listed
tuating along-wind or across-wind force obtained from in Table 3, which were determined based on the China
Eq. (10) or Eq. (9). The frequency response function Hj National Standard (GBJ9) [17].
of the structure is: In order to examine the feasibility of the established
 1 spectral model for evaluation of the across-wind
Hj ðxÞ ¼ x2j  x2 þ 2inj xxj ð19Þ response of rectangular tall buildings, it is useful to
compare the results obtained from the spectral model
For tall building structures, the damping ratio is rela- proposed in this study with those determined from
tively small and the frequency response function dis- well-known wind loading codes and standards such as
tributes sparsely in the frequency domain, therefore the the National Building Code of Canada (NBCC 1996)
cross-correlation terms in Eq. (17) are usually neglec- [19] and the Recommendations of the Architectural
ted, which leads to the following approximate Institute of Japan (AIJ 1996) [20]. The calculated
 Q.S. Li et al. / Engineering Structures 26 (2004) 1779–1794 1791

Table 3
Design wind speeds (m/s) at 10 m height in terrain category D and atop the building for different return periods

Return period (years) 1 5 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100

Design wind speed at 10 m
10.89 13.55 14.58 15.47 16 16.35 16.8 16.85 17.03 17.19 17.32 17.53
height
Design wind speed atop
26.71 33.24 35.76 37.95 39.25 40.11 41.21 41.33 41.78 42.17 42.49 43.01
the building

wind-induced acceleration responses against wind
speeds with various return periods atop the building
are listed in Table 4 for comparison purposes. Wind-
induced responses of the building under the wind
actions considered in Table 4 would be in medium or
high amplitude regions. As the full-scale measurements
of damping were not available in these amplitude
regions, the damping values adopted in the computa-
tions for the results presented in Table 4 were 1.5%,
2.5% and 3.5% corresponding to the approaching wind
speeds with return periods of 1–10, 20–30 and 40–100
years, respectively. Though the formulas used in
NBCC [19], AIJ [20] and this study were developed
based on different wind tunnel test techniques, it can be
seen from Table 4 that the differences among the
results obtained by the three methods are generally
acceptable in engineering practices, in particular, the
results obtained from the proposed method are just
between those obtained from the two well-known wind
loading codes. Therefore, the proposed spectral model
can be an alternative tool for evaluating across-wind
dynamic responses of rectangular tall buildings.
For modern tall buildings, such as the 63-story
Guangdong International Building, wind-related servi-
ceability issues due to excessive wind-induced motion
during strong wind storms which may influence occu-
pant comfort are often the limiting design criterion. It
has been widely accepted that building acceleration is
the most appropriate response component for estab-
lishing checking procedure for structural serviceability
requirements under wind action.
In order to examine the serviceability issue related to
the occupancy comfort for the Guangdong Inter-
national Building, the RMS and maximum acceleration
responses atop this building are evaluated for the
design wind speed with a return period of 10 years. The
damping ratio of 1.0% was selected for the first two
modes to evaluate the acceleration responses atop this
building. The design wind speed with a return period
of 10 years at 10 m height in terrain category D in
Guangzhou region was found to be 14.58 m/s accord-
ing to the China National Standard (GBJ9) [17]. The
computational results of the wind-induced acceleration
atop the building are listed in Table 5 for this case. It
can be seen from Table 5 that the wind-induced accel-
eration is mainly contributed from the first mode in
each direction. The acceleration response induced by
the second mode is only about 1/2.87 and 1/3.06 to
that caused by the first mode for along-wind and
across-wind responses, respectively. If the peak factor
for acceleration response is taken to be 3.5, the
maximum along-wind and across-wind accelerations
atop the building are 5.439 and 14.269 gal, respectively.
Both values are smaller than 25 gal which is the limit
of the occupancy comfort criteria for office or hotel tall
buildings specified by Technical Specification for Con-

Table 4
Estimated across-wind RMS acceleration response (gal) atop the building based on the present method, AIJ 1996 and NBCC 1995 Codes

Wind speed atop the building Across-wind RMS acceleration Across-wind RMS acceleration Across-wind RMS acceleration
(m/s) by the present method by AIJ 1996 Code by NBCC 1995 Code
26.71 1.516 2.299 1.189
33.24 2.892 3.322 2.469
35.76 3.657 4.189 3.121
37.95 3.505 4.002 2.883
39.25 3.950 4.575 3.271
40.11 4.284 4.731 3.377
41.21 4.056 4.979 3.647
41.33 4.104 5.098 3.712
41.78 4.279 5.142 3.776
42.17 4.443 5.324 3.943
42.49 4.580 5.492 4.077
43.01 4.810 5.863 4.215
1792 Q.S. Li et al. / Engineering Structures 26 (2004) 1779–1794

Table 5
Estimated wind-induced acceleration responses atop the building subjected to the design wind speed with a return period of 10 years (damping
ratio 1.0%)

Wind-induced response Response (RMS) of the Response (RMS) of the Total response Max. response
first sway mode (gal) second sway mode (gal) (RMS) (gal) (gal) la ¼ 3:5
Along-wind (direction 1) 1.467 0.513 1.554 5.439
Across-wind (direction 2) 3.875 1.267 4.076 14.269

crete Structures of Tall Building (JGJ3-2002) of China
[18]. Therefore, the wind-induced response of this
building should meet the occupancy comfort criteria
for this case.
No criteria of occupancy comfort are given in the
China design code (the technical specification JGJ3-
2002 [18]) except for the case of wind speed with 10-
year return period. However, it has been recognized
that the acceptance criterion should refer to a fre-
quency of occurrence which is related to the occurrence
of various wind speeds with different return periods.
Therefore, it is necessary to discuss the serviceability
issue of this tall building subjected to various wind
speeds based on the acceptance criterion referring to a
frequency of occurrence.
Melbourne and Palmer [21] proposed the following
maximum peak horizontal acceleration criterion for
occupancy comfort:
pffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
A
max ðms2 Þ ¼ 2 lnðfTÞ
 The damping ratios determined from the damping
lnR
 0:68 þ expð3:65  0:41 ln f Þ
5
ð24Þ
where R is the return period in years, f is the natural
frequency of the first sway mode of the building in
Hertz and T is the observation duration in seconds.
As discussed above, the acceptance criterion should
refer to a frequency of occurrence that is included in
Eq. (24) by using the parameter R (return periods). The
peak acceleration can be expressed as a function of the
standard deviation of the acceleration
A
max ðms2 Þ ¼ la r
ð25Þ
pffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
where la is the peak factor (la  2 lnðfTÞ).
Hence, the RMS acceleration criterion corresponding
to Melbourne and Palmer’s maximum peak horizontal
acceleration criterion is found to be:
 
lnR
r
ðms2 Þ ¼ 0:68 þ expð3:650:41 ln f Þ ð26Þ
5
The RMS value of resultant wind-induced acceler-
ation response (rT) is determined by taking the square
root of the sum of the squares (SRSS) of the across-
wind and along-wind acceleration response. If rT< r
,
the building satisfies its serviceability requirement for
occupancy comfort and this can be evaluated at differ-
ent wind speeds (or different return periods).
model proposed by Jeary [7] are found to be 1.7–3.2%,
3.2–4.4% and 4.5–5.4% corresponding to the across-
wind acceleration responses of the tall building sub-
jected to the design wind speeds with return periods of
1–10, 20–50 and 60–100 years, respectively. The corre-
sponding damping values estimated from the damping
model established by Satake et al. [14] are 1.0–1.9%,
1.9–2.2% and 2.2–2.4%, respectively. As stated in

Table 6
Estimated resultant wind-induced acceleration response (RMS in gal unit) atop the building versus acceleration comfort criteria corresponding to
frequencies of occurrence

Return period, Across-wind RMS Along-wind RMS Resultant of across-wind RMS values of
R (years) response (gal) response (gal) and along-wind RMS serviceability criteria
responses (gal) r
(gal)
1 1.723 0.614 1.829 2.663
5 3.079 1.236 3.318 3.923
10 3.875 1.644 4.210 4.466
20 3.505 1.467 3.799 5.009
30 3.950 1.622 4.270 5.327
40 4.532 1.934 4.927 5.552
50 4.829 2.132 5.279 5.727
60 4.104 1.619 4.412 5.869
70 4.279 1.671 4.594 5.990
80 4.443 1.717 4.763 6.095
90 4.580 1.756 4.905 6.187
100 4.810 1.819 5.142 6.269
 Q.S. Li et al. / Engineering Structures 26 (2004) 1779–1794
Satake et al.’s paper [14], their estimation formula
should be applicable to reinforced concrete buildings
lower than 130 m and subjected to small amplitude
vibrations. This suggests that those determined from
Satake et al.’s model are relatively small as far as the
vibration analysis is conducted for this tall building in
the medium and high amplitude levels. However, the
damping ratios obtained from the Jeary’s model seem
too large for serviceability analysis of a tall building
under wind actions. Therefore, it is decided that the
critical damping ratios of this tall building for all
vibration modes are taken as 1.5%, 2.5% and 3.5% for
the design wind speeds with return periods of 1–10,
20–30 and 50–100 years, respectively.
By utilizing the developed method for evaluation of
wind-induced response of the tall building, the along-
wind and across-wind acceleration responses atop the
building are calculated for various wind speeds. The
computational results are presented in Table 6 along
with the serviceability criteria determined from Eq. (26)
for comparison purposes. It is found from Table 6 that
the predicted acceleration responses at the top of the
tall building subjected to wind speeds with various
return periods do not exceed the relevant values of
acceleration response relating to the serviceability cri-
terion for occupancy comfort, even for the case of 100-
year return period. This suggests that this building
would appear satisfactorily to meet the occupancy
comfort criteria.
7. Concluding remarks
The objective of this combined experimental and
numerical study is to investigate wind-induced vibra-
tions and dynamic characteristics of the 63-story tall
building, Guangdong International Building. Full-scale
measurements of acceleration responses were made
atop the tall building. Amplitude-dependent damping
characteristics of the tall building were presented and
discussed based on the field measurements. In parallel
with the full-scale measurements, wind tunnel tests
were conducted to determine the spectral model of
across-wind forces on rectangular tall buildings. The
wind-induced along-wind and across-wind acceleration
responses were evaluated numerically based on the
established dynamic analysis model and the empirical
formula of across-wind force spectra. The serviceability
of this tall building under strong wind actions was ana-
lyzed and discussed in detail. The major conclusions
from this study are summarized as follows.
(1) Based on the spectral analysis of the data measured
from relatively long samples and dynamic analysis
from the finite element model of this tall building,
it was found that the measured natural frequencies
were larger than those calculated except the third
1793
mode in direction 2. This may be attributable to
several reasons such as that the effective mass of
the building is less than that assumed at the design
stage and/or the effective stiffness of the building is
higher than that determined at the design stage due
to the contribution of non-structural components.
(2) The results presented in this paper have shown that
the probability density functions (PDF) of wind-
induced acceleration responses present a pro-
nounced kurtosis. The PDF of accelerations in the
regions of both tails are significantly different from
the Gaussian distribution. The actual probability
distributions are larger than those described by
Gaussian distribution for both tails. This indicates a
higher probability for the occurrence of larger accel-
eration than that predicted by a Gaussian PDF.
(3) The measured damping demonstrates obvious
amplitude-dependent characteristics and increases
with increasing amplitude. Lower values of ampli-
tude-dependent damping in the second modes were
observed in comparison with the first modes in
both directions.
(4) By investigating the across-wind forces on rectangu-
lar cylinders with various side ratios and aspect
ratios in a boundary layer wind tunnel, an analytical
spectral model of across-wind force spectrum was
proposed, and empirical expressions of the RMS lift
coefficients (C
L ), strouhal numbers (St) of rectangu-
lar tall buildings and coherence functions (cij) of
across-wind force were also presented. The numeri-
cal results of the across-wind acceleration responses
obtained from the proposed method were just
between those determined from two well-known
wind loading codes (AIJ and NBCC). Therefore, it
was concluded that the proposed method can be an
alternative approach to evaluate the across-wind
response of rectangular buildings.
(5) By utilizing the computational method developed in
this paper, the along-wind and across-wind acceler-
ation responses were evaluated. The predicted accel-
eration responses at the top of the building
subjected to design wind speeds with various return
periods were all lower than the corresponding
values of the acceleration comfort criterion. It is
concluded from this study that if the tall building is
subjected to a strong typhoon with a generated wind
speed that is similar to the 100 year return period
statistics produced one recommended in the China
National Standard, this building would satisfac-
torily meet occupancy comfort criteria.
Acknowledgements
The work described in this paper was fully supported
by a grant from Research Grant Council of Hong
1794 Q.S. Li et al. / Engineering Structures 26 (2004) 1779–1794
Kong Special Administrative Region, China (Project
No. CityU 1131/00E) and a grant from City University
of Hong Kong (Project No. 7001448). Thanks are due
to Prof. A.P. Jeary and Prof. Da-Ming Zhang for their
valuable contributions to the full-scale measurements.
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