PA Residential Building#

PA Residential Building

1. Project Description#

The current study numerically reproduces a wind tunnel assessment of high-rise building with urban surroundings. The project was measured in a wind tunnel facility. The time histories of forces-by-floor were provided to us, and serve as a basis for comparison

The horizontal reference width of the main building is \(B=45.6\mathrm{m}\) and its geometry is shown below:

Building Geometry

The wind directions chosen to be simulated were:

Wind Directions#

Wind dir.

0 \(^\circ\)

30 \(^\circ\)

60 \(^\circ\)

90 \(^\circ\)

120 \(^\circ\)

150 \(^\circ\)

180 \(^\circ\)

210 \(^\circ\)

240 \(^\circ\)

270 \(^\circ\)

300 \(^\circ\)

330 \(^\circ\)

2. Simulation Setup#

The Synthetic Eddy Method (SEM) boundary condition is applied at the inlet of the computational domain. Solid fins are distributed across the floor to ensure the desired velocity and turbulence profiles at the test section. A Neumann boundary condition is applied at the remaining boundaries.

The building is positioned \(6H\) from inlet, and 6 grid refinement levels (\(lvl\,0\) to \(lvl\,5\)) were adopted:

Computational Grid

A 1:2 refinement ratio is estabilished between levels, and the simulation parameters at the building level were:

Dimensionless Parameters#

\(\boldsymbol{\Delta x/B}\) (spatial resolution)

6.85e-03

\(\boldsymbol{\Delta t/CTS}\) (temporal resolution)

4.53e-04

exports/\(\boldsymbol{CTS}\) (pressure acquisition frequency)

1.00e+01

\(\boldsymbol{T/CTS}\) (statistical sample size)

5.99e+02

\(\boldsymbol{Re_{B}=U_{H}B/\nu}\)

7.48e+04

The equivalent parameters in full-scale are:

Full-scale Parameters#

\(\boldsymbol{\Delta x[m]}\)

0.31

\(\boldsymbol{\Delta t[ms]}\)

0.45

\(\boldsymbol{f[Hz]}\)

9.98

\(\boldsymbol{T[s]}\)

600.00

The computational resources required were:

Computational Resources#

Device

Wind direction

Node count (million)

Allocated memory (Gb)

Ellapsed time (h)

NVIDIA L4

0 \(^\circ\)

122.02

14.76

55.62

NVIDIA RTX A5500

30 \(^\circ\)

127.58

17.33

49.81

NVIDIA L4

60 \(^\circ\)

129.07

15.58

54.96

NVIDIA L4

90 \(^\circ\)

119.29

14.45

53.70

NVIDIA L4

120 \(^\circ\)

127.56

15.39

55.62

NVIDIA L4

150 \(^\circ\)

129.04

15.58

54.75

NVIDIA L4

180 \(^\circ\)

122.02

14.75

54.45

NVIDIA L4

210 \(^\circ\)

128.15

15.45

53.26

NVIDIA L4

240 \(^\circ\)

129.64

15.63

54.97

NVIDIA L4

270 \(^\circ\)

120.79

14.61

53.70

NVIDIA RTX A5500

300 \(^\circ\)

128.13

17.40

49.52

NVIDIA L4

330 \(^\circ\)

129.61

15.64

53.65

3. Inflow#

An empty domain simulation is performed to measure the mean velocity and turbulence profiles. A probe line is placed at the position where the building will be located. The mean velocities used for calculating the pressure coefficient and convective time scale are taken from this simulation.

Wind Profiles#

Inflow Profile

Wind Spectra#

The power spectral density of the velocity components at height \(H\) are compared with theoretical Von Kármán curves to validate the atmospheric flow.

Inflow Spectrum

4. Results: Global Statistics#

The wind effect on the solid building is measured through force and moment coefficients. The building is divided in 76 floors. The force coefficient is calculated as:

(1)#\[C_{f\alpha} = \frac{1}{B H}\sum_{i\,\in\,\mathrm{floor}} C_{p, i} A_{i}n_{i\alpha}\]

where \(A_{i}\) is the tributary area.

For the peak values, the following procedure was applied for both datasets (numerical experimental):

  • The sample is subdivided in sub-samples of duration \(T\), and a 3s moving-average is applied to all sub-samples.

  • The smoothed sub-samples are divided in 10 intervals, from which the minimum and maximum values are taken.

  • The max/min values are fitted into a Gumbel distribution, and the mode \(U\) is rescaled to a duration of 1h.

  • A non-excedence probability of 78% is considered for the extreme values.

Force Coefficient - Mean and Peak#

Mean and Peaks 000
Mean and Peaks 030
Mean and Peaks 060
Mean and Peaks 090
Mean and Peaks 120
Mean and Peaks 150
Mean and Peaks 180
Mean and Peaks 210
Mean and Peaks 240
Mean and Peaks 270
Mean and Peaks 300
Mean and Peaks 330

Force Coefficient - RMS#

RMS 000
RMS 030
RMS 060
RMS 090
RMS 120
RMS 150
RMS 180
RMS 210
RMS 240
RMS 270
RMS 300
RMS 330

Force Coefficient - Spectrum#

Cfx Spectra 000
Cfy Spectra 000
Cmz Spectra 000
Cfx Spectra 030
Cfy Spectra 030
Cmz Spectra 030
Cfx Spectra 060
Cfy Spectra 060
Cmz Spectra 060
Cfx Spectra 090
Cfy Spectra 090
Cmz Spectra 090
Cfx Spectra 120
Cfy Spectra 120
Cmz Spectra 120
Cfx Spectra 150
Cfy Spectra 150
Cmz Spectra 150
Cfx Spectra 180
Cfy Spectra 180
Cmz Spectra 180
Cfx Spectra 210
Cfy Spectra 210
Cmz Spectra 210
Cfx Spectra 240
Cfy Spectra 240
Cmz Spectra 240
Cfx Spectra 270
Cfy Spectra 270
Cmz Spectra 270
Cfx Spectra 300
Cfy Spectra 300
Cmz Spectra 300
Cfx Spectra 330
Cfy Spectra 330
Cmz Spectra 330

Global Loads#

The static approach for the calculation of peak moments is given by:

(2)#\[R = \bar{R} + g \sigma_{R}\]

where \(\sigma\) is the root-mean-square and we use a peak factor \(g=3\) in the current analysis.

In the dynamic approach, the structural properties must be considered, and \(\sigma_{R}\) is broken in a background component \(\sigma_{B}\), and a resonant component \(\sigma_{RE}\), which results:

(3)#\[R = \bar{R} + g \sqrt{\sigma_{B}^{2}+\sigma_{RE}^{2}}\]

The background parcel is given by:

(4)#\[\sigma_{B}=\frac{\sigma_{F}}{K}\]

and the resonant by:

(5)#\[\sigma_{RE}=\sqrt{\frac{\pi}{4}+\frac{1}{\xi_{s}+\xi_{B}}\frac{f_{0}S_{F}\left(f_{0}\right)}{K^{2}}}\]

where \(\sigma_{F}\) is the root-mean-square of the generalized force, \(K\) is the generalized stiffness (determined from natural frequency and generalized mass), \(\xi_{S}\) and \(\xi_{B}\) are the structural and aerodynamic damping, and \(S_{F}\left(f_{0}\right)\) the power spectrum of the generalized force at the natural frequency \(f_{0}\).

We consider \(\xi_{S}=0.02\) and \(\xi_{B}=0\). The results for the static and dynamic responses for the bending moments is shown below:

Global Loads

Execution Notes#

Execution Notes#

Execution Date (YYYY-MM-DD)

2024-11-12

Solver Version

1.6.5

Changelog#

  • 19 Dez 2024: Added case