Effects of aerodynamic pressure tap layout and resolution on estimated response of high-rise structures: A case study

Abstract

This study examines the influence of pressure tap density and layout on estimated wind effects of a 47-story steel building for which the Database-Assisted Design procedure is used to calculate the base shears, base overturning moments, member Demand-to-Capacity Indexes (DCIs), inter-story drift ratios, and floor accelerations. From an original tap layout (20 rows by 5 columns, total 100 taps per façade), a total 16 tap layout cases were created varying vertical and horizontal tap densities. The influence of the tap density on the estimated wind effects of interest was then investigated. In most cases the calculated structural response is significantly more influenced by the horizontal than by the vertical tap density. The influence of the tap density was found to be strongest on the estimated base torsion, followed by the member DCIs, the base shears, and the base overturning moments. The acceptable pressure tap density depends on the structural response of interest. The results show that the current practice of considering global quantities like the overturning moment and/or the base shear as indicators of the adequacy of tap resolution for structural design can be misleading.