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Wind and Structures
  Volume 34, Number 5, May 2022 , pages 395-405
DOI: https://doi.org/10.12989/was.2022.34.5.395
 


Comparison of aerodynamic loading of a high-rise building subjected to boundary layer and tornadic winds
Arash Ashrafi, Jubayer Chowdhury and Horia Hangan

 
Abstract
    Tornado-induced damages to high-rise buildings and low-rise buildings are quite different in nature. Tornado losses to high-rise buildings are generally associated with building envelope failures while tornado-induced damages to low-rise buildings are usually associated with structural or large component failures such as complete collapses, or roofs being torn off. While studies of tornado-induced structural damages tend to focus mainly on low-rise residential buildings, transmission towers, or nuclear power plants, the current rapid expansion of city centers and development of large-scale building complexes increases the risk of tornadoes impacting tall buildings. It is, therefore, important to determine how tornado-induced load affects tall buildings compared with those based on synoptic boundary layer winds. The present study applies an experimentally simulated tornado wind field to the Commonwealth Advisory Aeronautical Research Council (CAARC) building and estimates and compares its pressure coefficient effects against the Atmospheric Boundary Layer (ABL) flow field. Simulations are performed at the Wind Engineering, Energy and Environment (WindEEE) Dome which is capable of generating both ABL and tornadic winds. A model of the CAARC building at a scale of 1:200 for both ABL and tornado flows was built and equipped with pressure taps. Mean and peak surface pressures for TLV flow are reported and compared with the ABL induced wind for different time-averaging. By following a compatible definition of the pressure coefficients for TLV and ABL fields, the resulting TLV pressure field presents a similar trend to the ABL case. Also, the results show that, for the high-rise building model, the mean and 3-sec peak pressures are larger for the ABL case compared to the TLV case. These results provide a way forward for the code implementation of tornado-induced pressures on high-rise buildings.
 
Key Words
    Atmospheric Boundary Layer (ABL); CAARC; high-rise building; pressure coefficient; Tornado-like Vortices (TLVs); WindEEE Dome
 
Address
Arash Ashrafi:WindEEE Research Institute, Western University, 2535 Advanced Ave., London, Ontario, Canada

Jubayer Chowdhury:1)WindEEE Research Institute, Western University, 2535 Advanced Ave., London, Ontario, Canada
2)CPP Wind Engineering Consultants, 7365 Greendale Road, Windsor, Colorado, USA

Horia Hangan:1)WindEEE Research Institute, Western University, 2535 Advanced Ave., London, Ontario, Canada
2)Faculty of Engineering and Applied Science, Ontario Tech University, Toronto, Canada
 

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