Tall buildings have been traditionally

designed to be symmetric rectangular,

triangular or circular in plan, in order to
avoid
excessive seismic-induced torsional
vibrations due to eccentricity,
especially in seismic-prone regions like
Japan. However,
recent tall building design has been
released from the spell of compulsory
symmetric shape design, and free-style
design is
increasing. This is mainly due to
architects’ and structural designers’
challenging demands for novel and
unconventional
expressions. Another important aspect is
that rather complicated sectional shapes
are basically good with regard to
aerodynamic
properties for crosswind excitations,
which are a key issue in tall-building
wind-resistant design.
Introduction

Tall building and damage

Nowadays, tall building are the most famous landmark of cities, have been a symbol of power and
wealth of a country. They were generally built for a commercial purpose and used as office
buildingin the aerly stage of their growth. The main reason was to put and closed together the
commercial activities in the city centre.((Günel & Ilgın, 2014).) Tall building or highrise building bukan
sahaja dibina untuk tujuan tempat tinggal, malahan ianya dibina bagi tujuan as a space that made for
offices and services in a building such as burj khalifa is the tallest building at Dubai is subdivided into
residential, offices, hotel, entertainment, and conference facilities. Manakala di Malaysia Merdeka
PNB 118 Tower yang sedang dalam pembinaan pula akan menjadi bangunan yang tertinggi di
Malaysia dan Southeast Asea terdapat beberapa bahagian seperti observation deck, mall, hotel and
offices.( http://www.pnbmerdekaventures.com.my/)

The increased population in urban societies and the constant pressure of limited land area with
expensive prices have caused the evolution of high-rise buildings. In 2007 it was the first time that
there were more people living in towns and cities than in rural areas. By 2050, this has increased to
more than six billion people, two thirds of humanity.( Hanlon M., World Population Becomes More
Urban Than Rural, 05-28- 2007, http://www.gizmag.com/go/7334/, visited 3-30-2012). This caused
the tall building have grown taller, and make a structure are often slender, due to extreme height to
footprint ratios and it is usually exhibit unconventional shapes and geometries.
Walaubagaimanapun, semakin maju dan tinggi pembinaan sesebuah bangunan semakin tinggi
kesulitan dan cabaran yang akan dihadapi.

This can be understood when the increased in flexibility makes contemporary tall buildings become
more susceptible to environmental excitement such as wind, which leads to horizontal vibration.
THE ROLE OF AERODYNAMIC MODIFICATIONS IN THE FORM OF TALL BUILDINGS AGAINST WIND
EXCITATION H. Emre ILGIN and M. Halis GÜNEL) Tall modern buildings are extremely sensitive to
the wind due to their light-weight construction. The structural design of tall buildings is
typically governed by lateral wind loading. At high speeds, wind induces large
stresses in the structural frame of the building and large pressures on its
façade (Mendis et al, 2007).
(PDF) Verification and validation framework for computational fluid dynamics simulation of wind
loads on tall buildings. Available from:
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/339677762_Verification_and_validation_framework_for
_computational_fluid_dynamics_simulation_of_wind_loads_on_tall_buildings [accessed May 20
2021].
When tall buildings rise above the average roof level of neighbouring structures they receive the full
force of the wind over most of their height, unless they happen to obtain partial shelter from other
tall buildings.( RECENT RESEARCH ON WIND FORCES ON TALL BUILDINGS by W. R. Schriever, M. Sc.
and W. Alan Dalgliesh, M. Eng.)

Wind

Wind is natural phenomena of air movement relative to the earth which is caused by a variety of
forces, including pressure changes in the atmosphere, which are caused by differential solar heating
of various areas of the Earth's surface, and rotational forces. (JD Holmes, 2015). The planet earth
receives varying blows of wind on its surface, some places of lesser extent and infrequent and at
other places stronger and frequent. (Extreme Wind Speeds and Their Prediction for Wind Turbines
Janardan Rohatgi*, Alex Araújo1 and Ana Rosa Primo2 *,1,2Dept. of Mechanical Engineering -
Federal University of Pernambuco (UFPE) – Recife – 50741 Brazil)

In the tropical region, tropical cyclone that form is a huge strong wind which blow around the centre
on intense low area. Cyclone are the local name in the Indian Ocean and the South Pacific Ocean,
but they are recognised as typhoon in the Northwest Pacific Ocean and hurricanes on the Northeast
Pacific Ocean and North Atlantic. ( (Marchigiani et al., 2013).)

Tropical cyclones are some of the most damaging events. They occur in yearly cycles and affect the
coastal population through high wind speeds by destroying dwellings and infrastructure. The most
major destructive force of a cyclone comes from strong wind. This extreme winds disaster have a
huge effect in environment easily can destroy buildings especially the roof, façade and strain their
structural system. And at times even there is loss of life. ( Humanitarian Impact of Tropical Cyclones
Luca Vernaccini, Tom De Groeve, Simone Gadenz,2007)

Buildings located in areas that are prone to cyclone should ideally be designed to withstand their
extreme winds. However, because this high wind are low-probability events, most buildings are not
specifically designed to resist the damage that they can cause, although these buildings’ structures
can usually withstand the damage even if their exterior cannot. One of the factor building can be
damage by extreme wind is when the façade is not designed according to a high factor of safety of
building structure. Figure show the damage of building due to extreme wind. When the façade is
damage the building interior is exposed to the outside and also damaged by the high wind and flying
debris. Due to this event, on the stage of building design, extreme wind should take as
consideration.

Figure shows the damage caused by a strong wind event (tornadoes) in Nashville Metro area on
March 3 2020.
Two tornadoes touched down in central Tennessee, shredding at least 140 buildings and
killing at least 22 people across the Nashville area
For a tall building, the increase in the height will increase the flexibility and sway due to lateral force
from wind loading. Such building may suffer severe deformation and affect the comfort level of the
occupants. At the same time, any façade located on these structures are exposed to high suction and
may be prone to damage. It is obvious that nowadays, some countries are competing to construct
the tallest building incorporating complex features in the country or the world thus making the
design engineer to place additional attention to the aerodynamic behaviour of tall buildings.
 Problem Statement

Tall buildings have been traditionally designed to be symmetric rectangular, triangular, or circular
in plan, to avoid excessive seismic-induced torsional vibrations due to eccentricity. Nowadays due
to improvement in structural analysis and design technologies, developed construction technique
and production of higher strength material make a recent tall building design has been released
from the spell of compulsory symmetric shape design, and free-style design is increasing. The
responses of this type of tall building to wind clearly become more critical as the construction
becomes taller, less stiff and more lightweight.

With the increasing demand in the design of tall buildings with various complex configurations,
the effect of wind flow must be fully and carefully examined. This type of tall building is
susceptible to damage during windstorm or strong wind event.

Figure 1.2 shows the damaged façade of Umno Building (20 storey) in Penang, Malaysia that
were blown away by strong wind. This phenomenon can be associated to the underestimation of
the air flow characteristics and distribution of wind pressure surrounding a complex shaped tall
buildings. With the increasing demand in the design of tall buildings with various complex
configurations, the effect of wind flow must be fully and carefully examined.

Figure 1.2 Damage to the façade of Umno Building in Jalan Macalister due to strong
wind event (Astro Awani Online, 2013)

It is very important to study peak suctions on roof and walls because it can cause frequent damage
under strong wind condition. At high speeds, wind induces large stresses in the structural frame of
the building and large pressures on its façade (Mendis et al, 2007). However there are very
minimum information studies related to the wind pressure configuration on modern design of tall
building. Most of the current studies only focused on simple modification to high rise
buildings.
 Mostly, design standards used around the world do not apply to buildings or structures that are of
unusual shape, height, or location. These standards offer some procedures for the determination
of response of buildings under wind loads. However, they are valid only for buildings in
rectangular prismatic or cylindrical shapes. In addition, not all of the standard can be applied for
a building that are more than 200meter height.

To address this gap in the research, this thesis will discuss the wind pressure analysis in
composite modern shape of tall building.

Objective

The main objective of this investigation is:

 To studying the aerodynamic characteristics of tall buildings with unconventional building

configurations.

 To determine the numerical effect of airflow properties on the wind pressure distribution
around tall building surface

 To developed an aerodynamic optimization to reduce the wind load by CFD

 To contribute to the development of the design guidance for tall buildings in relation to
aerodynamic modifications to control wind excitation as a reference for architects,
engineers, developers, and students.

The flow field around a building consists of a very complicated three-dimensional turbulent vortex
structure, which is characterized by stagnation, flow separation, circulation and unsteadiness.
( Computation of Wind Flow around a Tall Building and the Large--Scale Vortex Structure CHARLES C.
S. SONG Professor JIANMING HE) Large wind pressure occur on the surface of a building due to the
above mentioned.

Wind loads in tall buildings are one of the most significant forces which are responsible for the
terrible disasters. Hence, correct assessment and estimation of wind loads are necessary to reduce
the destructive effects of wind excitations in the built environment (Dagnew, 2009)

A properly designed high-rise building should satisfy both ultimate and serviceability
limit state conditions against vertical and lateral loads.
(10) (PDF) Wind Loads on High-Rise Buildings by Using Five Major International Wind Codes and
Standards. Available from:
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/303897522_Wind_Loads_on_High-
Rise_Buildings_by_Using_Five_Major_International_Wind_Codes_and_Standards [accessed May 20
2021].

Structural form is one of the biggest factors that affect structural behavior and
aesthetics of tall buildings. Building form and structural system are affected by
each other. It is a complex task to enhance the most appropriate form in terms
of architectural, structural and aesthetic ways. Geometry and building form
have the most important role in the emergence of structural system. On the
other hand, there is a close relationship between the form of the
structure and building aerodynamics. We should prefer wind-resistant design
in order to minimize the negative effect of wind.
(10) (PDF) An Overview on Tall Buildings from The Point of Structural Engineering. Available from:
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/338969069_An_Overview_on_Tall_Buildings_from_The_
Point_of_Structural_Engineering [accessed May 20 2021].

To overcome these problems, there are three main architectural and structural
strategies to reduce wind effects on tall buildings and mitigate their dynamic and
aerodynamic response: namely, (1) aerodynamic forms and modifica-tions; (2)
structural stiffness by accomplishing lateral-loads based structural systems; and (3)
damping sources.
(10) (PDF) INNOVATIVE DESIGN METHOD OF TALL BUILDINGS A computational-based approach in
optimizing the wind effects on tall buildings. Available from:
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/275022359_INNOVATIVE_DESIGN_METHOD_OF_TALL_B
UILDINGS_A_computational-based_approach_in_optimizing_the_wind_effects_on_tall_buildings
[accessed May 20 2021].

(All approaches of designing tall buildings can be divided into three main parts: architectural design
approaches, structural approaches, and mechanical approaches. Daemei, A.B.; Khotbehsara, W.M.;
Nobarani, E.M.; Bahrami, P. Study on wind aerodynamic and flow characteristics of triangularshaped tall buildings and CFD
simulation in order to assess drag coefficient. Ain Shams Eng. J. 2019, 10, 541–548. [CrossRef])

Wind effects on buildings are constantly changing, so buildings may be designed to resist these
fluctuating wind loads, as well as alter its patterns to create desirable wind conditions around the
building.