e-Analysis of High-Rise Buildings Subjected to Wind Loads

Abstract

The NatHaz Aerodynamic Loads Database (NALD) (http://aerodata.ce.nd.edu) introduced in 2000 has served an important first step in establishing an on-line experimental archive of high-frequency base balance (HFBB) data for use in the preliminary design of high-rise buildings subjected to wind loads. As a result, NALD was recently introduced in the Commentary of ASCE 7-05 (C6.5.8) as an alternative means of assessing the dynamic wind load effects on high-rise buildings. This paper presents NALD version 2.0 (v. 2.0), integrating the latest advances in data management and mining for interactive queries of aerodynamic load data and an integrated on-line analysis framework for determining the resulting base moments, displacements, and equivalent static wind loads for survivability and accelerations for serviceability (habitability). The key feature of NALD v. 2.0 is the flexibility its analysis module offers: Users may select not only the data from the on-line NatHaz aerodynamic loads database, but also may input desired power spectral density (PSD) expression or wind tunnel-derived PSD data set obtained from a HFBB experiment for the evaluation of wind load effects on high-rise buildings. Thus, it serves as a stand-alone analysis engine. Examples illustrate the capabilities of NALD v. 2.0 and provide comparisons of response estimates to demonstrate the flexibility of the analysis engine to provide a platform that can be readily expanded and supplemented to yield a comprehensive, simplified, and efficient avenue for e-analysis of high-rise buildings.