WIND EFFECTS

Prepared By:- Prof. Anuj Chandiwala

Jun 3, 2016

DESIGN CONSIDERATIONS
In

designing for wind, a building cannot be considered

independent of its surroundings because configuration of

nearby buildings and natural terrain has substantial
influence on the design loads, and hence on the sway
response of the building. Sway is defined as the horizontal
displacement at the top of a building.

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 The

sway at the top of a tall building caused by wind may not be

seen by a passerby, but may be of concern to those experiencing

wind-motion problems at the top floors.
There

is scant evidence that winds, except those due to a

tornado or hurricane, have caused major structural damage to

buildings.
Nevertheless,

it is prudent to investigate wind-related behaviour

of modern skyscrapers, typically built using lightweight curtain

walls, dry partitions, and high-strength materials, because they
are more prone to wind-motion problems than the early
skyscrapers, which had the weight advantage of heavy masonry
partitions, stone facades, and massive structural members.
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 All

buildings sway during windstorms, but the motion in old tall

buildings with heavy full-height partitions has usually been

imperceptible and, therefore, has not been a cause for concern.
Structural

innovations coupled with lightweight construction

have reduced the stiffness, mass, and damping characteristics of

modern buildings.
In

these buildings, objects may vibrate, doors and chandeliers

may swing, pictures may lean, and books may fall off shelves.
Additionally if the building has a twisting action, its occupants
may get an illusory sense that the world outside is moving,
creating symptoms of vertigo and disorientation.
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 Sometimes,

strange and frightening noises may be heard by

occupants as the wind shakes elevators, strains floors and

walls, and whistles around the building sides.
It

is generally agreed that acceleration response that includes

the effects of torsion at the top floors of a tall building, is the

best standard for evaluation of motion perception. A commonly
used criterion is to limit accelerations of the buildings upper
floors to no more than 2% of gravity (20 milli-g) for a 10 year
wind. Other commonly applied guidelines include those
published by the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban
Habitat (CTBUH), and the International Organization for
Standardization (ISO 6899-1984).
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NATURAL WIND
Wind

is not constant either with height or time, is not

uniform over the windward side of the building, and does

not always cause positive pressure.
In

fact, wind is a complicated phenomenon; it is air in

turbulent flow, which means that motion of individual

particles is so erratic that in studying wind, one ought to
be concerned with statistical distributions of speeds and
directions rather than with simple averages.

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 Wind

is the term used for air in motion and is usually

applied to the natural horizontal motion of the

atmosphere.
Motion

in a vertical or nearly vertical direction is called

current.
Movement

of air near the surface of the earth is 3D, with

horizontal motion much greater than the vertical motion.

The

wind-tunnel testing provides information regarding

the response of buildings subject to different wind speed

and direction.
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 In

order to make the most rational use of this

aerodynamic information, it is necessary to synthesize

test results with the actual wind climate characteristics
at the site.

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TYPES OF WIND
Winds

that are of interest in the design of buildings can be

classified into three major types:

Prevailing winds.

Seasonal winds.

Local winds.

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PREVAILING WINDS
Surface

air moving towards the low-pressure equatorial

belt is called prevailing wind or trade wind.

In

the northern hemisphere, the northerly wind blowing

toward the equator is deflected by the rotation of the earth

to a northeasterly direction, and hence commonly known
as the northeast trade wind.
The

corresponding wind in the southern hemisphere is the

southeast trade wind.

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SEASONAL WINDS
Air

over the land is warmer in summer and colder in

winter than the air adjacent to oceans during the same

seasons.
During

summer, the continents become seats of low

pressure, with wind blowing in from the colder oceans.

In

winter, the continents experience high pressure with

winds directed winds directed toward the warmer oceans.

These

moments of air caused by variations in pressure

difference are called seasonal winds.

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 The

monsoons of the China Sea and the Indian Ocean

are example of these movements of air.

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LOCAL WINDS
These

are associated with the regional weather patterns

and include whirlwind and thunderstorms.

They

are caused by daily changes in temperature and

pressure, generating local effects in winds.

The

daily variations in temperature and pressure may

occur over irregular terrain, causing valley and mountain

breezes.

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CHARACTERISTICS OF
Wind flow is complex because numerous flow situations
WIND
arise from the interaction of wind with structures.
Characteristics
Variation
Wind

of wind as following:

of wind velocity with height (velocity profile)

turbulence

Statistical
Vortex

probability

shedding

Dynamics

nature of wind-structure interaction

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WIND TUNNELS
Wind

tunnels such as those shown in figures 1 and fig. 3

are used, among other things, to provide accurate

distributions of wind pressure on buildings as well as
investigate aeroelastic behavior of slender and light
weight structures.

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 Services

provided by a wind tunnel consultant

typically offer the following benefits:

Provides

an accurate distribution of wind loads, especially

for structures in a built-up environment by determining

directly the impact of surrounding structures.
Provides

predictions of wind-induced building motions

likely to be experienced by occupants of the top floors,

and compares the test results to available serviceability
criteria.

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 Pretest

estimate of cladding pressures and overall loads by

a wind engineer, based on a review of similar buildings,

with appropriate consideration of the local meteorological
data can help the engineer, the architect, and the faced
engineer to develop a preliminary foundation design and
initial cost estimate for the curtain wall.

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 Wind-tunnel

tests are considered to be properly

conducted only if the following conditions are satisfied:

The

natural atmospheric boundary layer has been modeled

to account for variation of wind speed with height.

The

length scale of the longitudinal component of

atmospheric turbulence is modeled to approximately the

same scale as that used to model the building.
The

modeled building and the surrounding structures and

topography are geometrically similar to their full-scale

counterparts.
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 The

projected area of the modeled building and its

surroundings is less than 8 % of test section crosssectional area unless correction is made for blockage.
The

longitudinal pressure gradient in the wind-tunnel test

section is accounted for.

Reynolds

number effects on pressure and forces are

minimized.
Response

characteristics

instrumentation

are

of

the

consistent

with

wind-tunnel
the

required

measurements.
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RIGID MODEL STUDIES

The

primary purpose of the rigid model test is for

obtaining cladding design pressure, the data acquired from

the wind-tunnel tests may be integrated to provide floor
by floor shear forces for design of the overall MWFRS
(Main Wind Force Resisting System), provided there is
sufficient distribution of pressure taps.
Most

commonly, pressure study models are made from

methyl methacrylate commonly known as Plexiglas,

Lucite and Perspex.
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 This

material has several advantages over wooden or

aluminium alloy models because it can be easily and

accurately machined and drilled and is transparent,
facilitating observation of the instrumentation inside the
model .
It

can also be formed into curved shapes by heating the

material to about 200C.

The

model is typically instrumented with as many as 500-

700 pressure taps. It includes detailed topography of

nearby surroundings within a radius of 457 m.
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 The

wind tunnel test is run for a duration of about 60s

which corresponds to approximately 1h in real time.

Typically measurements are taken for wind direction of
10 increments, sufficient numbers of readings are
gathered from each port to offset the effect of time
dependent fluctuations. The measured pressures are
divided by a reference pressure measured in the wind
tunnel.

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RIGID MODEL TEST-OVERALL

BUILDING LOADS
Rigid

model test results are primarily used to predict wind

loads for design of glass and other cladding elements, they

can nevertheless be integrated to provide lateral loads for
the design of the MWFRS.
The

procedure entails combining wind load information

with the building response characteristics using random

vibration theory.

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 In

spit of the fact that rigid-model wind study does not

take into account may of the factors typically considered

is an aeroelastic study, it is still considered adequate to
provide design data for buildings with height-to-width
ratio of less than 5.

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