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 1930’s

N-S Y
1.0 (N-S)
wind
D 3
2
x10
Uh a

0.5 X
E- (E-W)
x
W x
x

0 10x 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90

Angle of attack - degrees

D - 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 - 1970’s

Full-scale and wind-tunnel measurements of local cladding pressures and

overall building response (accelerations)

Studies of local pressure peaks and implications for glass design :

Wind
pressure

0 1 2 3 4 5 6
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 1960’s)
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• Flow around a tall building :
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• Pressure fluctuations on a tall building :

(movie by Shimizu Corporation, Tokyo, Japan)

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• Pressure fluctuations on a tall building :

(movie by Shimizu Corporation, Tokyo, Japan)

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• Cladding pressures :

Cp (t)

ˆ Cp
C p

C p


C p

Time

Four values of pressure coefficients :


p  p0 p 2
p̂  p 0
 p  p0
Cp  Cp  σ Cp  Ĉ p  Cp 
1 1 1 1
ρ a U h2 ρ a U h2 ρ a U h2 ρ a U h2
2 2 2 2
 Tall buildings

• Square cross section - height/width =2.1

Windward wall :

Cp Cp Ĉp

0.8
1.8

stagnation 0.0 1.6

0.6
point  0.8h
1.4
-0.2 -0.2
0.4 1.0 1.2 1.0
0.2 0.2 -0.4 -0.4

minimum maximum
 Tall buildings

• Square cross section - height/width =2.1

Side wall (wind from left) :

Cp Cp Ĉp
-0.9 -2.4 -2.2 0.6
-0.5 -2.0
0.4
-2.0
-0.6 -2.2 0.2
-0.8 -1.8
-0.8 -2.4
-0.7 0.0
-2.6 -2.6
-2.8 -2.8
-0.6 -3.2
mean Cp’s : -3.0
-3.4
-0.6 to -0.8 -0.5 -3.8
-0.9
-2.4

largest minimum Cp : -3.8

 Tall buildings

• Square cross section - height/width =2.1

Leeward wall :

Cp Cp Ĉp
-1.6
-1.6

-0.45 -0.45
-1.4 -1.4
-0.4

-1.2

-0.35

-0.1
-1.6 -1.6

mean Cp’s :
-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

(Brown’s integral) :

D   s (t ) dt
T n

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 m


E{D}  KT ( U ) C p f Cp (C p )dC p
1 2 m
2 0

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

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• 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 :

m
 pmax .t 
m
60 60.p max
D  K   dt  K
0
 60  (1  m)

pmax is specified load in glass design charts

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• 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 :
m
 1 
K.60. Ck . ρ a U 2   m

 2 
  K (3600) ρ U 2
1  
 a  0 C p f Cp (C p )dC p 
m

(1  m)  2  
1/ m
 
Ck  60(1  m)  C p f Cp (C p )dC p
m 
 0 
Ck = equivalent glass design pressure coefficient - gives pressure which
produces same damage in 1 hour of wind loading as that produced by a 1-
minute ramp load
Ck is approximately equal to the peak pressure coefficient during the hour
of storm winds
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• 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
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• 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)
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• Overall loading and dynamic response

Standard deviation of deflections at top of a tall building :

kx
σx  ρ a  U h  1
 A x    along wind
h  ρ b  n1b  η

ky
σy  ρ  U  1
 A y  a  h  cross wind
h  ρ b  n1b  η

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 :

1000 x deflection
Circular cross section : height
1
10
sy
h
5 cross wind
X wind

2
Y

10 0

x sx
5 h

-1
10

5
2 3 5 7 10 15

1
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• Overall loading and dynamic response

Deflections at top of a tall building :

Effect of cross section :

.004

Peak deflection
.003

Direction of motion
height

.002

.001

0
30 50 100 500 1000
Return period/years

Modification of corners are effective in reducing response

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• 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%)
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• Torsional loading and response

Mean torque coefficient :

0.2

0.1

0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1.0

2
f=  bmin 
 
 
 bmax 

depends on ratio between minimum and maximum projected widths of

the cross section
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• Interference effects

Surrounding buildings can produce increases or decreases in peak wind

loads :

increases
Building A
Y
increases 4b
Wind direction
V (X,Y) 3b
+30%
0% +10% 2b
+20% +10% -20% +20%
0% b
-10%
X
b
10b 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)
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• Damping

Damping is the mechanism for dissipation of vibration energy

Structural damping (Japanese buildings) :

 xt 
1  0.014n1  470   0.0018 reinforced concrete
h 

 xt 
1  0.013n1  400   0.0029 steel frame
h

n1 = first mode natural frequency xt = amplitude of vibration

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• Damping

Auxiliary damping :

Viscoelastic damper :
F/2 F/2

Steel flange

V.E. material

Centreplate

used on World Trade Center buildings, New York

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• Damping

Auxiliary damping :

Tuned mass damper :

y 1 (t) y 2 (t)

K1

K2

C1
M1 C2
M2

used on CityCorp building, New York (M2=400 ton of concrete)

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• Damping

Auxiliary damping :

Tuned liquid (sloshing) damper :

2R

used on Shin-Yokohama hotel, Japan

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• Damping

Auxiliary damping :

Tuned liquid column damper :

Flow
Orifice

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

 End of Lecture 19

John Holmes
225-405-3789 JHolmes@lsu.edu