A corner protrusion strategy for the aerodynamic response mitigation of tall buildings with the aim of using non-structural components

Abstract

Side protrusion, i.e., the addition of material on the side of a tall building, has been demonstrated as an effective strategy to mitigate the aerodynamic responses under a broad range of design wind speeds. This study investigates the possibility of producing similar behavior of side protrusion via a corner protrusion strategy. The proposed strategy is evaluated using two parameters, which are the gap ratio (GR) and the protrusion ratio (PR). High-frequency force balance (HFFB) wind tunnel testing was carried out to examine the aerodynamic performance of ten models under different wind angles. The results demonstrate that the corner protrusion strategy can achieve similar performance as the side protrusion strategy using nonstructural components (NCs). The reductions of base overturning moment (OTM) for model CP-14–86 are 33%, 39%, 33%, and 24% at the mean hourly design wind speeds (cities) of 42 m/s (San Francisco), 53 m/s (New York), 62 m/s (Houston), and 77 m/s (Miami), respectively. The effectiveness of the corner protrusion strategy occurs when the PR is larger than 6%. The benefits of using NCs to reduce wind responses of tall buildings are discussed, which is expected to be a competitive aerodynamic strategy not only for new buildings but also for retrofitting existing buildings.