U.S. Department of Commerce

High-Rise Database-Assisted Design 1.1 (Hr_dad_1.1): Concepts, Software, and Examples U.S. Department of Commerce

Modern tall buildings are increasingly characterized by irregular geometries. However, this newly found architectural freedom has complicated their structural design. Traditionally the design is carried out by considering a fairly large number of load combinations based on Equivalent Static Wind Loads (ESWLs) derived from High Frequency Force Balance (HFFB) wind tunnel testing and associated frequency domain analyses. This approach to the design of tall buildings against wind storms was developed primarily during the 1970s when the possibility of using Synchronous Multi-Pressure Sensing System (SMPSS) pressure measurements to characterize the external wind pressure field did not exist, and fast and efficient Ordinary Differential Equation (ODE) solvers were not available. This is not the case anymore as SMPSS measurements using up to 500 pressure taps are commonplace as are extremely fast and efficient ODE solvers.