A simplified approach for judging and evaluating the contribution of higher-order modes to the wind-induced acceleration of high-rise buildings

Abstract

Acceleration is the control parameter for the occupant comfort, often solved in the frequency domain with modal decomposition. In general, the first-order mode response is adopted to represent the total acceleration in practice. However, considering only the first-order mode has been demonstrated to yield underestimated results up to 20 %, while no exact criterion exists to determine whether higher-order modes require to be considered or not. Hence, underlying factors, like the structural natural frequencies, the excitation dominant frequencies, and the distributions of building masses/stiffness, which may significantly affect the contribution of higher-order modes to the acceleration, are analyzed first. Notably, the ratio of the natural frequency of the higher-order mode to that of the first-order mode plays a decisive role in the contribution of the higher-order mode's acceleration. Moreover, the third-order and beyond modes can be largely disregarded. Subsequently, an empirical approach is introduced to determine the need for considering high-order modes. Finally, a simplified formula for estimating acceleration response in the frequency domain is derived to consider second-order modal response. This study provides a method for determining the contribution of higher-order vibration modes to acceleration and a simplified formula to consider the higher-order modal response.