Tall buildings are one of the few constructed facilities whose design relies solely upon analytical and scaled models, which, though based upon fundamental mechanics and years of research and experience, has yet to be systematically validated in full scale. In response to this need, through the combined efforts of members of academe, a design firm and a commercial wind tunnel testing laboratory, a program was initiated to monitor the full-scale response of representative tall buildings and compare this to the predicted response from wind tunnels and finite-element models used commonly in design. As part of this monitoring program, in situ periods and damping ratios over a range of response amplitudes are also being evaluated. This paper provides an overview of the monitoring program, which includes three tall buildings in the city of Chicago, details their instrumentation and modeling, and provides an example of the full-scale response data analyses being conducted.
While high-rise construction serves as one of the most challenging projects undertaken by society each year, tall buildings are one of the few constructed facilities whose design relies solely upon analytical and scaled models, which, though based upon fundamental mechanics and years of research and experience, has yet to be systematically validated in full-scale. In response to this deficiency, a fullscale monitoring project was initiated through the combined efforts of members of academe (University of Notre Dame), a design firm (Skidmore, Owings and Merrill, Chicago) and a wind tunnel laboratory (Boundary Layer Wind Tunnel Laboratory, University of Western Ontario). The objective of this program is to monitor the full-scale response of three tall buildings in Chicago and compare this to the predictions from wind tunnels and finite element models used in their design, suggesting changes where appropriate to refine the design state-of-the-art. This also includes an evaluation of the in-situ periods and damping ratios over a range of response amplitudes. This paper overviews the research project, current status of activities and presents updated findings of the program.
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