Structural Design of High-Rise Buildings for Wind Loads

Estimates of wind-induced wind effects on tall buildings are based largely on 1970s and 1980s technology, and can vary by more than 40 % depending upon the wind engineering laboratory. We describe a time-domain procedure allowing the realistic estimation of wind-induced demand-to- capacity ratios with any mean recurrence interval in any individual member, through: (a) the development of micrometeorological, aerodynamics, and wind climatological data, (b) the use of a physically and probabilistically realistic aerodynamic/climatological interfacing model, and (c) the use of modern computational resources for the significant improvement of the quality of the design through differentiated structural methods employing influence coefficients specific to each member. The paper then addresses the increase in load factors associated with uncertainties in the parameters that determine wind effects and, in particular, in the natural frequencies and damping ratios.