COMPARISON OF WIND INDUCED RESPONSE OF HIGH-RISE BUILDINGS WITH REINFORCED CONCRETE AND CROSS LAMINATED TIMBER

Abstract

The main objective of this paper is to examine the wind-induced structural response of high–rise buildings constructed in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia using reinforced concrete and lightweight cross-laminated timber (CLT) floor systems. Two major analyses were performed on two regular reinforced concrete (RC) buildings of 200 m height located in Dhahran and Jeddah. In the first instance, numerical simulations to obtain wind induced displacements and accelerations were conducted using computer software ETABS, SAP2000 and analytical model derived from building code. Then, another simulation of the building models was performed under similar wind conditions and same design criteria but by replacing the RC slabs of the buildings by cross laminated slabs. The wind data used for simulation was based on hourly wind data collection for the last 11 years (2009 – 2019). The results revealed higher story drift for both floor systems, whenever the wind speed is higher. The comparative analysis of the wind induced structural responses of traditional RC and CLT slabs showed greater accelerations at the top of the buildings with CLT floor system. However, the usage of CLT slab seems to be more feasible in the KSA considering adjusting designing lighter beam, column, and shear wall elements due to inherent CLT lightness.