Aerodynamic Characteristics of Tall Buildings with Various Shapes

Tall buildings have been traditionally designed to be symmetric rectangular, triangular or circular in plan, but recent tall building design has been released from the spell of compulsory symmetric shape design, and free-style design is increasing. One important advantage for this trend is that rather complicated sectional/structural shapes are good with regard to aerodynamic properties for across-wind responses, which is a key issue in tall building wind-resistant design. A series of wind tunnel tests have been carried out to determine wind forces and wind pressures acting on a large number of tall buildings with various shapes; some selected results for models that showed effective wind-resistant performance will be discussed. The results have led to comprehensive understanding of the aerodynamic characteristics of tall buildings with various structural shapes.