THE APPLICATION OF WIND TUNNEL STUDY AND VIBRATION CONTROL IN BUILDING DESIGN

Design of building structures has been increasingly challenging because height, appearance and function of the buildings are being pushed to achieve a higher limit to demonstrate their unique identity among the others. Reviewing past experience in building design, it has been, however, noted that conventional design method sometimes has limitation in satisfying all kinds of serviceability performances of building structures but increase of building stiffness by enlargement of structural members seems to be the only solution. This paper introduces the research studies and application of control technology blended in some building projects in the aspects of wind engineering and vibration control. An urban redevelopment project in Hong Kong will be one of the example projects discussed. A methodology, namely linear-mode-shape (LMS) method, in wind analysis to the conventional wind tunnel study has been conducted in this project to provide reasonable estimation towards wind-induced responses of building. The application of tuned liquid damper (TLD) to improve building performance in terms of occupant comfort is also highlight of this project being discussed. Other vibration issues related to seismic events in will be another focus of this paper. Control devices of viscous damper and high hardness visco-elastic damper for enhancement of seismic performance of building structures are the examples introduced.