Full-scale performance evaluation of tall buildings under wind

Full-scale monitoring is an important tool to evaluate the performance of dynamically sensitive structures and assure that the design assumptions and methodologies used to predict their responses yield accelerations that are consistent with in-situ behaviors. Unfortunately, such sustained monitoring is not a common practice for tall buildings, prompting the establishment of the Chicago Full-Scale Monitoring Program (CFSMP), which has spent a decade monitoring three tall buildings embodying structural systems common to high-rise design. This paper presents a cross section of this database for the two-fold purpose of evaluating the in-situ dynamic properties and comparing them to design values and then using these properties to predict RMS accelerations' levels based on wind tunnel test data to evaluate their consistency with full-scale observations. Although the responses observed are low amplitude in nature, some important observations can be made, including the range of wind speeds for which RMS accelerations are more accurately predicted and that conservatism in these predictions is achieved more consistently for the concrete building in the program. This paper also provides further evidence to demonstrate the dependence of critical damping ratios on the structural system employed, the amplitude sensitivity of dynamic properties, and the types of systems for which dynamic properties are more accurately predicted.

► In-situ behavior of three tall buildings in Chicago was observed.
► Wind tunnel response predictions were compared to responses measured in-situ.
► Evidence that critical damping ratios are dependent on the structural system.
► Amplitude dependence of dynamic properties was found for all three buildings.