Abstract:

In this paper, first, a wind tunnel test was carried out to investigate the characteristics of wind load on the surface of a twin-tower corridor-connected tall building with complex geometric plan. Next, a single-tower test was performed for comparison. Then, the total wind force along the coordinate axis was calculated by integrating the wind pressure along the plan circumference. The results were finally inversly calculated to obtain the global shape coefficient. It is found that the wind pressure slightly increases with the elevation and the global shape coefficient continuously decreases, that the wind angle of single tower corresponding to the maximum shape coefficient is 15 away from the coordinate axis, that the x-direction shape coefficient of the upstream tower in the twin towers is slightly less than that of the single tower and that of the downstream tower is 50% less than that of the single tower, that the y-direction shape coefficient is slightly less than that of the single tower, and that the shape coefficient of space corridor is about 2. 0 in y direction and zero in x direction. The analyses demonstrate that the block of wind by the upstream tower may decrease the global shape coefficient of the downstream tower and the downstream tower may slow down the wake flow and decrease the negative pressure on the back of the upstream tower, thus slightly redu- cing the corresponding shape coefficient. However, the local wind pressures of the upstream and the downstream towers both increase due to the complicated wake flow. The authors also present some design values of wind load for similar projects based on the analyzed and tested results.

Key words: wind tunnel test, wind-pressure coefficient, shape coefficient, tall building, twin-tower corridor-con-nected structure