Aerodynamic modifications of tall buildings to mitigate wind response

Abstract

During the last century, there has been a huge development in the field of wind engineering. Wind tunnel testing in combination with CFD has made it possible for engineers to build tall irregular buildings. Today, Burj Khalifa serves as a monument of what is possible to achieve within engineering. Wind load is an important factor in structural analysis. Storms and bad weather result in severe damages to buildings and structures, causing great economic losses every year. To ensure proper durability, habitability and safety measures, different sets of codes and standards are developed and implemented worldwide. The governing wind load for a tall building is the along-wind. However, in some cases across-wind exceeds the along-wind due to fluctuations caused by the vortex shedding phenomena. Hence, these factors need to be investigated during the designing stage of tall buildings. The most commonly strategy to suppress these loads are by doing architectural modifications such as tapering, setback, openings, twisting and corner softening/cutouts.