Study of wind tunnel test results of high-rise buildings compared to different design codes

Several international codes have been developed for evaluating wind loads on structures; however, the wind structure interaction could not be accurately captured by these codes due to the gusty nature of wind and the dynamic behavior of structures. Therefore, the alternative wind tunnel testing was introduced. In this study, an introduction to the available approaches for wind load calculations for tall buildings was presented. Then, a comparative study between different codes: the Egyptian code, ECP 201-08, ASCE 7-05, BS 6399-2, and wind tunnel test results was conducted. An investigation has been carried out on two case studies tall buildings located within the Arabian Gulf region. Numerical models using (ETABS) software were produced to obtain the relation between codes analytical values and wind tunnel experimental test results for wind loads in the along and across wind directions. Results for the main structural responses including stories forces, shears, overturning moments, lateral displacements, and drifts were presented graphically in order to give clear comparison between the studied methods. The conclusions and recommendations for future works obtained from this research are finally presented to help improving Egyptian code provisions and show limitations for different cases.