Performance evaluation of high-rise buildings using database-assisted design approach

In recent years, performance-based design (PBD) has gained attention and is sought to be the benchmark approach in the field of wind engineering. While the concept of performance-based design is well-accepted in earthquake engineering, it is yet to be embraced for the design of buildings to resist severe wind loads. This paper introduces a framework for the performance-based wind design (PBWD) of tall steel buildings using a time domain analysis that keeps the process of wind effects and the structural design process integrated, transparent, and fully auditable. From the perspective of PBWD, the main objective is to achieve a desirable performance level for a given hazard level, i.e., mean recurrence interval of extreme wind. The wind effects are directly related to the mean annual return of wind through a well-accepted simulation approach. A 180 m tall standard CAARC building is used for the case study to illustrate the proposed methodology. The wind load time histories are determined using the pressure tap data on exterior faces of the building measured in the wind tunnel. With the calculated wind loads, nonlinear dynamic analysis is conducted with various wind directions and mean wind speeds based on database-assisted design (DAD) approach. The key performance measures such as demand-to-capacity indices, inter-story drift, damage deformation index, and floor accelerations are calculated as a function of wind directions and mean wind speed. The obtained responses are used in conjunction with a local wind climatological database to determine the extreme wind effects for any specific mean recurrence interval. The performance of the steel building is evaluated for three performance criteria, including occupant comfort, operational, and continuous occupancy. The conducted performance assessment reveals that building fails to satisfy the serviceability requirement of drifts. However, the building satisfies the requirements for the occupant comfort and operational performance levels for strength design, while it also satisfies the continuous occupancy, limited interruption in Risk category II. The result reveals that the proposed framework provides realistic assessment of performance of the building incorporating the wind directionality and return period of the wind speeds.