STUDY ON WIND LOADS OF A TYPICAL SUPER-TALL BUILDING

A super-tall building, which has a height of about 371m, is located in Guangzhou, Guangdong Province, China. The sitting of the tall building is very close to the seashore in an active typhoon generating area. This super-tall building may be subjected to severe wind forces induced by typhoons. All these facts made it necessary to investigate the performance of the super-tall building under strong wind conditions. Detailed wind tunnel tests for the super-tall building were carried out and the the variations of longitudinal, lateral and torsional wind loads with wind attack direction were evaluated. The cross-correlations among various wind loading components were presented and discussed in detail. Furthermore, the spectral characteristics of of along-wind, across-wind and torsional components were studied and an empirical formula for estimation of the across-wind overturning moment spectrum for the super-tall building is presented. The findings of the paper are expected to be of considerable interest and practical use to professionals and researchers involved in the design of super-tall buildings.