Estimation of wind load on supertall buildings using partial output measurements

Abstract

Supertall buildings possess distinctive characteristics such as high flexibility, low damping, and susceptibility to wind. The impact of the wind load and wind-induced responses plays a critical role in ensuring the safety and functionality of these structures. Consequently, investigating the wind load and wind-induced responses of supertall buildings has immense practical significance and engineering value to guarantee the secure operation of such buildings under strong wind conditions. However, the direct measurement of wind loads and wind-induced responses across all building floors presents substantial challenges, including considerable engineering workload and implementation difficulties. This study proposes a novel approach based on Kalman filtering to estimate wind loads and wind-induced responses in supertall buildings. This approach involves fusing partial acceleration and displacement measurements to estimate wind load and wind-induced response accurately. Additionally, optimized sensor placement was considered based on the iterative process of the effective independence method. Wind-induced responses were obtained through numerical testing and subsequently utilized to estimate the wind loads on a supertall building. Various factors, such as measurement noise, modeling errors of structural dynamic properties, sensor placement, and response synchronization, were thoroughly discussed to assess their impact on the overall analysis.