Approximate Method for Lateral Load Analysis of High-Rise Buildings

An approximate method for the design of long, high-rise buildings under horizontal wind loading is described. The method is based on the reduction of the framed structure to one built-in column with equivalent bending and torsional stiffnesses. Discrete actions of the horizontal members on the columns are distributed over the story heights. The floors are treated as rigid in the horizontal plane. The calculation is reduced to the solution of a system of four linear equations; the determination of internal actions only requires some very simple operations. The accuracy of the method is demonstrated by comparison to the displacement method.