Experimental Study on the Influence of Planar Configuration on Wind Load Distribution Characteristics of High-Rise Buildings with Whole Wind Azimuths

Wind resistance performance research on the influence of the exterior features of high-rise buildings is an essential part of structure design. In this paper, the wind resistance tests of three high-rise building models with different concavity shapes on the horizontal plane were investigated using the wind tunnel experiment. The CAARC (Commonwealth Advisory Aeronautical Research Council) standard high-rise model was adopted as the background model (BG model for short), and the other two comparison groups with different planar configurations were designed, one with concave corners around the building (T1 model) and the other with concavity in the middle of the long side of the building (T2 model). The distribution laws of the average wind pressure coefficients of the building facades and roofs under the whole wind azimuths were analyzed comprehensively. The results show that the external shape plays a certain role in wind pressure distribution. Among the three high-rise building models, the most unfavorable positive wind pressure coefficient on the facades occurs in the T2 model (a 4.7% increment compared with the BG model), while the most unfavorable negative wind pressure coefficient appears in the T1 model (a 25% increment compared with BG model). Furthermore, it is noted that the architectural appearance of the T1 model makes the flow field around the building more streamlined, reflecting more favorable wind-resistance performance, including a maximum reduction of 47.2% in the least stresses per unit area on the roof. The research in this paper can provide some references for the design of different exterior features of high-rise buildings.