Wind tunnel pressure data analysis for peak cladding load estimation on a high-rise building: Fid-Bau Portal

Wind tunnel pressure data analysis for peak cladding load estimation on a high-rise building

Pomaranzi, Giulia / Amerio, Luca / Schito, Paolo / Lamberti, Giacomo / Gorlé, Catherine / Zasso, Alberto

Abstract A correct evaluation of wind loads on high-rise building cladding panels is essential to ensure safety while avoiding costly over-design. The estimation of peak design loads from wind tunnel tests requires post-processing pressure time histories to remove small-scale fluctuations that do not significantly affect the total load on cladding elements. This post-processing commonly employs a low pass filter with a time-scale that is linearly proportional to the ratio of a reference length scale and velocity. The objective of this study is to analyze the equivalence between the moving-average filter and the spatial averaging procedure, focusing on panels near the top corners and edges of a high-rise building. The real area-averaged pressure is calculated using high-resolution pressure measurements and compared to estimates obtained from moving-average filters with a range of time-scales. The error is within $\pm 1 C_{p}$ for most pressure tap locations and panels analyzed, although some locations near the top edge result in overestimates of the peak suction up to $3 C_{p}$ . The optimal value of the proportionality coefficient defining the filter time-scale is shown to be dependent on both pressure tap location and panel size, suggesting that accurate estimates of area-averaged pressures based on single-point measurements require more advanced post-processing techniques.

Highlights • The paper presents an analysis of high-resolution pressure measurements for cladding load estimation on a high-rise building • The analysis focuses on areas near the top corners and edges of the lateral façade, where suction peaks are the determining factor for cladding design • The real area-averaged pressure is compared to the values obtained using a moving-average filter with a time-scale based on TVL equation • The error is within ±1 $C_{p}$ for most pressure tap locations and panels analyzed • Some locations near the top edge result in overestimates of the peak suction up to 3 $C_{p}$ instead. • Pneumatic averaged pressure results in smaller error ( $\sim$ 0.3 $C_{p}$ ) for all the locations and exposures here analyzed.