Analysis of wind action on unique structures with application to Seville Fair Gateways

• We compare the national Spanish code for wind action (CTE-2006) with the European code (EC1-2007).
• The European code is more restrictive than the Spanish code, although the Spanish code was developed from Eurocode 1.
• To verify the results obtained from Eurocode 1, a wind tunnel test is performed, applied to a unique structure.
• The wind tunnel test is even more restrictive than Eurocode 1.
• For unique structures, wind tunnel tests should be performed to determine wind action accurately.

The implementation of temporary large structures for different events such as large stages for concerts, advertising posters or symbolic accesses to public festival areas is threatened by the danger of collapse due to wind action. An analysis of the European code is necessary, using comparisons with other analysis tools such as wind tunnels, to establish whether such standards are secure for specific unconventional geometries.For the purposes of this comparison, a model corresponding to a particular structure is analyzed, the Gateway to the Seville Fair in Spain. This paper first establishes a comparison between the national and the European code for wind action: the Spanish Technical Building Code (CTE DB SE-AE 2006) and Eurocode 1 (EN 1991-1-4 2007), taking into account that the national code has been developed using the European one as a model. Both standards are analyzed to demonstrate that the national code is not fully adapted to the European one. Subsequently, the results obtained from the European code are compared with those derived from the development of an experimental test of the same model in a wind tunnel.The final objective of this paper is to demonstrate that neither national nor international codes are valid for structures with unique geometries, and therefore in this case it is necessary to perform an experimental test to determine wind action accurately.