ABSTRACT
The main structure of a tall building and its façade must be designed to safely withstand the extreme winds to which the building will be subjected during its expected life. The wind loads, and appropriate load factors that allow for uncertainty in ordinary buildings, are often prescribed by the analytical methods given in building codes. Computational Fluid Dynamics is increasingly used for qualitative evaluation of wind effects, particularly ground-level wind speeds, but is not yet capable of providing quantitative results of sufficient accuracy for the determination of design wind loads. The wind load formulae of building codes have been developed primarily for low-rise buildings and typically address, with few exceptions, only wind loads in the along-wind direction. In parts of the world where extreme winds are dominated by hurricanes or typhoons, the sample of these storms recorded at any one meteorological station is usually too small for statistically reliable predictions to be made of extreme wind speeds and directions.
