• Wind and Structures
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• v.32 no.4
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• pp.371-391
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• 2021

Tornadoes are the most devastating meteorological natural hazards. Many empirical and theoretical numerical models of tornado vortex have been proposed, because it is difficult to carry out direct measurements of tornado velocity components. However, most of existing numerical models fail to explain the physical structure of tornado vortices. The present paper proposes a new empirical numerical model for a tornado vortex, and its load effects on a low-rise and a tall building are calculated and compared with those for existing numerical models. The velocity components of the proposed model show clear variations with radius and height, showing good agreement with the results of field measurements, wind tunnel experiments and computational fluid dynamics. Normal stresses in the columns of a low-rise building obtained from the proposed model show intermediate values when compared with those obtained from existing numerical models. Local forces on a tall building show clear variation with height and the largest local forces show similar values to most existing numerical models. Local forces increase with increasing turbulence intensity and are found to depend mainly on reference velocity Uref and moving velocity Umov. However, they collapse to one curve for the same normalized velocity Uref / Umov. The effects of reference radius and reference height are found to be small. Resultant fluctuating force of generalized forces obtained from the modified Rankine model is considered to be larger than those obtained from the proposed model. Fluctuating force increases as the integral length scale increases for the modified Rankine model, while they remain almost constant regardless of the integral length scale for the proposed model.

• International Journal of High-Rise Buildings
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• v.3 no.4
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• pp.297-304
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• 2014

Recently, there have been some reported examples of structural collapse due to gravity, subsequent to damage from accident or an excitation that was not prepared for in the design process. A close view of new concepts, such as a redundancy and key elements, has been taken with the aim of ensuring the robustness of a structure, even in the event of an unexpected disturbance. The author previously proposed a sensitivity index of the vertical load carrying capacity to member disappearance for framed structures. The index is defined as the ratio of the load carrying capacity after a member or a set of an adjacent member disappears, to the original load carrying capacity. The member with the highest index may be regarded as a key element. The concept of bio-mimicry is being applied to various fields of engineering, and tree-shaped structures are sometimes used for the design of building structures. In this study a sensitivity analysis is applied to the irregular-framed structures such as tree-shaped structures.

• Wind and Structures
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• v.10 no.5
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• pp.401-420
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• 2007

Field measurements of the wind-induced response of two residential reinforced concrete buildings, among the tallest in the world, have been performed during two typhoons. Natural periods and damping values have been determined and compared with other field measurements and empirical predictors. Suitable and common empirical predictors of natural period and structural damping have been obtained that describe the trend of tall, reinforced concrete buildings whose structural vibrations have been measured in the collection of studies in Hong Kong compiled by the authors. This data is especially important as the amount of information known about the dynamic parameters of buildings of these heights is limited. Effects of the variation of the natural period and damping values on the alongwind response of a tall building for serviceability-level wind conditions have been profiled using the gust response factor approach. When using this approach on these two buildings, the often overestimated natural periods and structural damping values suggested by empirical predictors tended to offset each other. Gust response factors calculated using the natural periods and structural damping values measured in the field were smaller than if calculated using design-stage values.

• Journal of Korean Society of Steel Construction
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• v.10 no.1 s.34
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• pp.115-123
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• 1998

In design of tall buildings, the flows of stress and ultimate strength of structures cannot be obtained by the elastic analysis alone. The current inelastic analysis are very impractical for practical engineer due to the amount of work involved in engineering calculation. In this paper the PC-based inelastic analysis by the residual strength ratio concepts is introduced. The efficiency of inelastic analysis is evaluated by comparing the results of inelastic analysis with those of elastic analysis for the existing tall buidling located in Seoul. Some modification in terms of lateral resisting structural system is proposed to improve the system ductility.

• Wind and Structures
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• v.32 no.4
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• pp.283-292
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• 2021

Performance-based seismic design (PBSD) is currently used for retrofitting of older buildings and the design of new buildings. Whereas, application of performance-based design for wind load is still under development. The tendency has been in the codes to increase wind hazard based on recent recorded events. Since tall buildings are highly susceptible to wind load, necessity for developing a framework for performance-based wind design (PBWD) has intensified. Only a few guidelines such as ASCE (2019) provide information on using PBWD as an alternative for code prescriptive wind design. Though wind hazards, performance objectives, analysis techniques, and acceptance criteria are explained, no recommendations are provided for several aspects like how to select a proper level of wind hazard for each target performance criterion. This paper is an attempt to explain current design philosophy for wind and seismic loads and inherent connection between the components of PBSD for development of a framework for PBWD of tall buildings. Recognizing this connection, a framework for PBWD based on limits set for serviceability and strength is also proposed. Also, the potential for carrying out PBWD in line with ASCE 7-16 is investigated and proposed in this paper.

• International Journal of High-Rise Buildings
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• v.2 no.3
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• pp.271-283
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• 2013

This paper introduces the current status of high-rise building design in Japan, with reference to some recent projects. Firstly, the design approval system and procedures for high-rise buildings and structures in Japan are introduced. Then, performance-based wind-resistant design of a 300 m-high building, Abeno Harukas, is introduced, where building configuration, superstructure systems and various damping devices are sophisticatedly integrated to ensure a higher level of safety and comfort against wind actions. Next, design of a 213 m-high building is introduced with special attention to habitability against the wind-induced horizontal motion. Finally, performance-based wind-resistant design of a 634 m-high tower, Tokyo Sky Tree, is introduced. For this structure, the core column system was adopted to satisfy the strict design requirements due to the severest level of seismic excitations and wind actions.

• International Journal of High-Rise Buildings
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• v.9 no.4
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• pp.351-360
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• 2020

Monitoring civil structures periodically is necessary for ensuring the fitness of the structures. Cracks on inner and outer surfaces of the building plays a vital role in indicating the health of the building. Conventionally, human visual inspection techniques were carried up to human reachable altitudes. Monitoring of high rise infrastructures cannot be done using this primitive method. Also, there is a necessity for more accurate prediction of cracks on building surfaces for ensuring the health and safety of the building. The proposed research focused on developing an efficient crack classification model using Transfer Learning enabled EfficientNet (TL-EN) architecture. Though many other pre-trained models were available for crack classification, they rely on more number of training parameters for better accuracy. The TL-EN model attained an accuracy of 0.99 with less number of parameters on large dataset. A bench marked METU dataset with 40000 images were used to test and validate the proposed model. The surfaces of high rise buildings were investigated using vision enabled Unmanned Arial Vehicles (UAV). These UAV is fabricated with TL-EN model schema for capturing and analyzing the real time streaming video of building surfaces.

• Journal of Korean Association for Spatial Structures
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• v.14 no.4
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• pp.97-104
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• 2014

Recently, a concept of damped outrigger system has been proposed for tall buildings. Structural characteristics and design method of this system were not sufficiently investigated to date. In this study, control performance of damped outrigger system for building structures subjected to seismic excitations has been investigated. And optimal design method of damped outrigger system has been proposed using multi-objective genetic algorithm. To this end, a simplified numerical model of damped outrigger system has been developed. State-space equation formulation proposed in previous research was used to make a numerical model. Multi-objective genetic algorithms has been employed for optimal design of the stiffness and damping parameters of the outrigger damper. Based on numerical analyses, it has been shown that the damped outrigger system control dynamic responses of the tall buildings subjected to earthquake excitations in comparison with a traditional outrigger system.

• International Journal of High-Rise Buildings
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• v.7 no.4
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• pp.389-396
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• 2018

This paper presents a numerical investigation on the structural response of a multi-story building subjected to spreading multi-compartment fires. A recently proposed simple fire model has been used to simulate two spreading multi-compartment fire scenarios in a 10-story steel-framed office building. By assuming simple temperature rising and distribution profiles in the fire exposed structural components (steel beams, steel column and concrete slabs), finite element simulations using a three-dimensional structural model has been carried out to study the failure behavior of the whole structure in two multi-compartment fire conditions and also in a standard fire condition. The structure survived the standard fire but failed in the multi-compartment fire. Whilst more accurate fire models and heat transfer models are needed to better predict the behaviors of structures in realistic fires, the current study based on very simple models has demonstrated the importance and necessity of considering spreadingmulti-compartment fires in fire resistance design of multi-story buildings.

• International Journal of High-Rise Buildings
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• v.1 no.1
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• pp.37-51
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• 2012

New generation of tall and complex buildings systems are now introduced that are reflective of the latest development in materials, design, sustainability, construction, and IT technologies. While the complexity in design is being overcome by the availability and advances in structural analysis tools and readily advanced software, the design of these buildings are still reliant on minimum code requirements that yet to be validated in full scale. The involvement of the author in the design and construction planning of Burj Khalifa since its inception until its completion prompted the author to conceptually develop an extensive survey and real-time structural health monitoring program to validate all the fundamental assumptions mad for the design and construction planning of the tower. The Burj Khalifa Project is the tallest structure ever built by man; the tower is 828 meters tall and comprises of 162 floors above grade and 3 basement levels. Early integration of aerodynamic shaping and wind engineering played a major role in the architectural massing and design of this multi-use tower, where mitigating and taming the dynamic wind effects was one of the most important design criteria established at the onset of the project design. Understanding the structural and foundation system behaviors of the tower are the key fundamental drivers for the development and execution of a state-of-the-art survey and structural health monitoring (SHM) programs. Therefore, the focus of this paper is to discuss the execution of the survey and real-time structural health monitoring programs to confirm the structural behavioral response of the tower during construction stage and during its service life; the monitoring programs included 1) monitoring the tower's foundation system, 2) monitoring the foundation settlement, 3) measuring the strains of the tower vertical elements, 4) measuring the wall and column vertical shortening due to elastic, shrinkage and creep effects, 5) measuring the lateral displacement of the tower under its own gravity loads (including asymmetrical effects) resulting from immediate elastic and long term creep effects, 6) measuring the building lateral movements and dynamic characteristic in real time during construction, 7) measuring the building displacements, accelerations, dynamic characteristics, and structural behavior in real time under building permanent conditions, 8) and monitoring the Pinnacle dynamic behavior and fatigue characteristics. This extensive SHM program has resulted in extensive insight into the structural response of the tower, allowed control the construction process, allowed for the evaluation of the structural response in effective and immediate manner and it allowed for immediate correlation between the measured and the predicted behavior. The survey and SHM programs developed for Burj Khalifa will with no doubt pioneer the use of new survey techniques and the execution of new SHM program concepts as part of the fundamental design of building structures. Moreover, this survey and SHM programs will be benchmarked as a model for the development of future generation of SHM programs for all critical and essential facilities, however, but with much improved devices and technologies, which are now being considered by the author for another tall and complex building development, that is presently under construction.