Windstorm Resilience of a 46-Story Office Building: Fid-Bau Portal

Windstorm Resilience of a 46-Story Office Building

Ghebremariam, B. T. / Judd, J. P.

This paper discusses the predicted performance of a 46-story office building subjected to wind loads. The lateral force resisting system in the building consists of a central core of reinforced concrete shear walls, and the gravity framing system consists of a composite floor system supported by structural steel beams and columns. Wind loads on the building envelope were determined using experimental tests on a scale model of the building in an atmospheric boundary layer wind tunnel. The structural response was determined using a finite element model of the building generated in SAP2000 software. Windstorm resilience was predicted by correlating the structural response (story drift, floor acceleration, and roof acceleration) to the sensitivity of both structural and non-structural building components. The FEMA P-58 software and tools, originally developed for seismic applications, were used to determine the building’s fragility components and to simulate performance. Results showed that the wind-generated motion of the building was severe with substantial damage to cladding for the basic wind speed of 115 mph. Significant repair cost and repair time for the reinforced concrete shear walls was anticipated, in addition to repair costs and time associated with non-structural and other structural components.