• Journal of the Architectural Institute of Korea Structure & Construction
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• v.35 no.7
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• pp.157-164
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• 2019

The wind tunnel test makes it possible to predict the wind loads for the wind resistant design. There are many methods to evaluate wind loads from data obtained from the wind tunnel test and these methods have advantages and disadvantages. In this study, two of these methods were analyzed and compared. One is the wind load evaluation method by fluctuating displacement and the other is the wind load evaluation method considering vertical profile of fluctuating wind force. The former method is evaluated as the sum of the mean wind load of the average wind force and the maximum value of the fluctuating wind load. The latter method is evaluated as the sum of the mean wind load and maximum value of the background wind load, and the maximum value of the resonant wind load. Two methods were applied to the wind tunnel test to compare the evaluated wind loads according to the two methods, with a maximum difference of about 1.2 times. The wind load evaluated by the method considering vertical profile of the fluctuating wind force (VPFWF) was larger than the wind load evaluated by the method by fluctuating displacement (FD). Especially, the difference of the wind load according to the two methods is large in the lower part of the building and the wind load is reversed at a specific height of the building. VPFWF of evaluating resonant wind loads and background wind loads separately is more reasonable.

• 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.