BUFFETING EFFECTS OF UPSTREAM BUILDINGS

ABSTRACT This study systematically modelled the buffeting effects on a 150 × 37 × 37 m building of upstream single and twin buildings having a clear upstream fetch (e.g. water, desert). The results show that the presence of an upstream building of the same size can increase the dynamic loads by a factor of 1.65. A 220 m building upstream will increase the factor to 1.9. Twin 220 m buildings upstream can further increase this factor to 2.15. Buffeting effects can be significant for distances of 1 km. The maximum buffeting loads would have serious effects on a building designed to usual wind codes.