Field measurements of wind effects on the tallest building in Hong Kong

Central Plaza has a height of approximately 374 m and is 78-storeys tall. It is the tallest structure in Hong Kong and was the highest reinforced-concrete building in the world when it was built several years ago. This paper describes some results obtained from the full-scale measurements of wind effects on Central Plaza. The field data such as wind speed, wind direction and acceleration responses have been measured during the close passage of several typhoons in recent years. Detailed analysis of the field data is conducted to investigate wind effects on the tall building. The full-scale measurements are compared with the wind tunnel results. The amplitude-dependent characteristics of damping that were obtained by using the random decrement technique are investigated on the basis of the field measurements. Copyright (C) 2003 John Wiley Sons, Ltd.