Wind Characteristics Investigation on The Roofs of Three Adjacent High-Rise Buildings in a Coastal Area during Typhoon Meranti

Abstract

This paper presents the study of the pulsating characteristics of three adjacent high-rise buildings A, B, and C under typhoon ‘Moranti’ (2016) based on the measurement of the actual top wind speed. The studied pulsating characteristics included mean wind speed and direction, turbulence intensity, gust factor, turbulence integral scale, wind speed spectrum and correlation. The relationships between each pulsating parameter and the relationship between the pulsating parameter and gust duration have been investigated. Results show that the mean wind speed and wind direction of three buildings are close. When U ≥ 10 m/s in three different sites at the same time, the turbulence intensity variation of three buildings is consistent and decreases when mean wind speed increases. Once only two locations are acquired simultaneously and the wind angle between 35° and 45°, the mean values of the along-wind and cross-wind turbulence of building A and building C are close. The along-wind turbulence of the three buildings is greater than the predicted Chinese codes for various terrains. The turbulence intensity and gust factors obtained through the analysis of the samples with the mean wind speed U ≥ 10 m/s are reasonable. The turbulence integral scales of buildings A and C are equal to the predicted values of ASCE-7 and AIJ-2004, whereas the turbulent integral scale of building B is evidently small. The gust factors of three buildings increase when the turbulence intensity increases; these two characteristics have a linear relationship. At the same time interval, building B has the maximum along-wind turbulence intensity and gust factors during the low wind speed period and building C achieves the minimum values. Building A acquires the maximum and building C obtains the minimum values in the high wind speed period. The turbulence intensity and gust factors of building B show a certain pulsation. Results show that turbulence intensity and gust factors are mainly affected by the short-term fluctuation of wind. The longitudinal wind speed spectrum of three buildings conforms well to the von Karman model. The correlation of along-wind speed depends on the wind speed, whereas the correlation of cross-wind direction is independent of wind speeds. The measured data and statistical parameters provide useful information for the wind resistance design of high-rise buildings in typhoon-prone areas.