A brief overview of wind tunnel test and CFD to investigate the wind effects on tall building

Abstract

The impact of wind on tall buildings is not uniform and varies according to the building’s shape and size. Designing a tall building with a regular plan shape is relatively straightforward due to the abundance of available data. Codal provisions for tall buildings are mostly accessible when the building’s plan geometry remains unchanged. Data availability is limited to regular shapes, where modifications are not incorporated in tall buildings. Therefore, it is essential to investigate wind effects on buildings with non-regular shapes. Two widely used methods for such investigations are wind tunnel testing and Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD). While wind tunnel testing is time-consuming, CFD methods can be adopted for preliminary wind tests. It is crucial to validate CFD results before interpreting them for any analysis. Wind predominantly exerts positive forces on the windward corner, while negative forces are observed on the leeward and side faces of high-rise building models.