THE TREATMENT OF WIND LOADING ON TALL BUILDINGS

Publisher Summary This chapter discusses the significant features of the interaction of a tall building with the wind and to indicate the approaches available for making quantitative estimates of key design parameters. Reasons for requiring a rational and refined approach to the wind loading of tall buildings have become compelling. The new opportunities for carefully tailored design afforded by development of new architectural forms and structural systems, the introduction of a broader range of materials, especially higher strength steels and concrete, the formulation of new methods of analysis, and the application of the computer to the design and analytical processes have created a demand for an exact description of the wind loading that traditional approaches cannot supply. The traditional approach to wind loading that has been used in conjunction with the design of tall buildings and other structures is one in which the wind pressure is assumed to act statically. There is an adjustment for the variation of velocity with height that is sometimes based on the maximum gust variation with height and sometimes on the mean speed variation with height.