Wind-induced vibration of high-rise buildings according to design standards

Wind-induced vibration has become one of the main design challenges regarding modern high-rise buildings. High-rise buildings are naturally more sensitive for dynamic responses due to their low fundamental frequencies than low-rise buildings. At the same time, different wind conditions such as vortex effects intensify at higher levels and create more vibration prone structures. \nThe main problem regarding wind-induced vibration is occupants’ respond to the fluctuation of a building and it has proven to cause various negative effects, such as sleepiness and motion sickness. For this reason, different criterion and methods to evaluate dynamic responses of structures are required. \nThe current problem regarding dynamic response evaluation of high-rise buildings is that most of the structural design standards offer limited information of this phenomenon, that due to its complexity, is hard to condense into a standardized form. This often leads to more advanced methods being used for estimating the building motion, such as wind tunnel tests, but different calculation estimates in the early designing process would potentially help to determine the need and scope for the vibration analysis. \nWind-induced vibration occurs in three directions, referred as the along-wind, cross-wind and torsional directions that are caused partially by differing circumstances. Extensive research shows that all direction and potentially the combinations of them induce notable risks for building fluctuation. Currently the dynamic response calculation method provided by the European Standard EN 1991-1-4 is relatively limited, and only offers a calculation method for the first direction of vibration response. However, in other standards around the world, new research of the subject has already been implemented. In this study, these different standards are evaluated and compared in terms of wind-induced vibration estimation and new methods to supplement the European Standard are searched. \nTwo comparison calculations are carried out in this study that describe the differences in the standards and their evaluation methods. Also, some challenges and potential problems in using standardized methods for these complex phenomena are discussed. Furthermore, relevant factors and building characteristic are evaluated, that create more vibration prone structures.