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VI National Conference on Wind Engineering 2012, Dec. 14-15

A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF WIND FORCES ON TALL BUILDING AND TOWERS
AS PER IS 875-PART-III (1987) AND DRAFT CODE (2011)
USING GUST FACTOR METHOD

Siddharth Behera and Achal Kumar Mittal
CSIR-Central Building Research Institute, Roorkee

ABSTRACT

The correct estimation of the wind forces acting on tall buildings and towers is very essential for the safe
design of structural elements. The influence of dynamic velocity fluctuations on the along wind loads for
these structures are determined using Gust Factor Method. Several revisions has been done in clause
9.2 of the Draft code for Wind loads on buildings and Structures, (IS 875-Part-III) for calculation of Gust
Factor as compared to the old Wind code (1987). The paper highlights all changes incorporated in the
draft code regarding the calculation of this factor. Two examples, one of a hypothetical tall building and
the other of a Microwave tower subjected to lateral Along Wind Forces are analysed using both the codes
and results obtained are compared and discussed.

Keywords: Tall buildings, Gust Factor Method, Along Wind Force, Microwave tower.

1 INTRODUCTION

The Indian Standard Code of Practice for Wind loads on buildings and Structures (IS 875-Part-III)
contains methods of evaluating the dynamic effects of wind on flexible structures that can oscillate in the
wind. The wind on earths surface is turbulent in nature that gives rise to randomly varying wind pressures
about a certain value associated with the mean wind speed. The dynamic part of the wind pressures set
up oscillations in a flexible structure, which may be defined as one having the fundamental time period of
vibration more than 1.0 second. Oscillations will thus be caused in the along-wind direction. Furthermore,
flexible structures also respond in the across-wind direction on account of vortex shedding. In this paper,
only the former wind induced oscillation in tall buildings is discussed. To obtain the along-wind response
of a flexible structure the design wind pressure has to be obtained for the hourly mean wind speed
instead of the 3-second gust speed. The static wind pressure thus obtained is then multiplied by the Gust
Factor, G. This approach is based on the stochastic response of an elastic structure acted upon by
turbulent wind producing random pressures. The structure is considered to vibrate in its fundamental
mode of vibration. The gust factor, G, includes the effect of non-correlation of the peak pressures by
defining a size reduction factor, S. It also accounts for the resonant and the non-resonant effects of the
random wind pressures. The equation for G contains two terms, one for the low frequency wind speed
variations called the non-resonant or background effects, and the other for resonance effects. The first
term accounts for the quasi-static dynamic response below the natural frequency of vibration of the
structure while the second term depends on the gust energy and aerodynamic admittance at the natural
frequency of vibration as well as on the damping in the system. A lot of change has been incorporated in
the empirical formulae for calculation of Gust Factor, G in the draft code as compared to the old code
introduced in the year 1987. The charts for calculation of background factor, B
s
and Gust factor Energy, E
has been replaced with other empirical relations in the draft code. The roughness factor r together with
the peak factor gf (a measure of the turbulence intensity present in the wind) as well as the effective
turbulence length scale, L
h
found from charts in old code has also been replaced with suitable empirical
relation. The expressions for Gust Factor, G as per the draft code (Eqn. A) and the old code (IS:875 - Pt.3
1987) (Eqn. B) are discussed respectively.

2 EQUATION FOR GUST FACTOR AS PER DRAFT CODE



2
2 2
1 (1 )
s R
v s
H g SE
G r g B
|
(
= + + u +
(

(Eqn. A)

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VI National Conference on Wind Engineering 2012, Dec. 14-15
where,
r = a roughness factor which is twice the longitudinal turbulence intensity, I
h


Terrain category: 1

Terrain category: 2

Terrain category: 3

Terrain category: 4

z
0i
= aerodynamic roughness height for i
th
terrain = 0.002, 0.02, 0.2 for terrain category 1, 2, 3 and 4
respectively.
z = a height or distance above the ground
g
v
= a peak factor for upwind velocity fluctuation
= 3.0 for category 1 and 2 terrains and
= 4.0 for category 3 and 4 terrains
B
s
= background factor indicating the measure of slowly varying component of fluctuating wind load
caused by the lower frequency wind speed variations
(
(

+
+
h
sh
L
b s h
2 2
46 . 0 ) ( 26 . 0
1
1

where,
b
sh
= average breadth of the structure between heights s and h
L
h
= measure of effective turbulence length scale at the height, h in m
=
25 . 0
10
85 |
.
|

\
| h
for terrain category 1 to 3
=
25 . 0
10
70 |
.
|

\
| h
for terrain category 4
= factor to account for the second order turbulence intensity
|
|
.
|

\
|
=
1 , 0
10 1 ,
log 0535 . 0 3507 . 0
z
z
I
z
( )
1 , 4 , 1 , 2 ,
7
1
z z z z
I I I I + =
( )
1 , 4 , 1 , 3 ,
7
3
z z z z
I I I I + =
|
|
.
|

\
|
=
4 , 0
10 4 ,
log 1358 . 0 466 . 0
z
z
I
z

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VI National Conference on Wind Engineering 2012, Dec. 14-15
=
2
s h v
B I g

H
s
= height factor for resonance response
=
2
1 |
.
|

\
|
+
h
s

s = Levels at which action effects are calculated.
S = a size reduction factor given by


where
b
0h
= average breadth of the structure between 0 and h
E = spectrum of turbulence in the approaching wind stream
=
( )
6 / 5
2
8 . 70 1 N
N
+
t

where,
N = an effective reduced frequency =
na = first mode along wind frequency of the structure in Hz
h
V
= design mean value wind speed at height, h in m/s calculated using the mean hourly wind speed
coefficient
2,i
k

= ratio of structural damping to critical damping of a
structure
R
g
= peak factor for resonant response
=
| | 2ln(3600 )
a
n


3 EQUATIONS FOR GUST FACTOR AS PER OLD CODE


( )
2
1 1
f
SE
G g r B
|
(
= + + u +
(



1
3.5 4
1 1
a a oh
h h
n h n b
V V
=
( (
+ +
( (

( )
0.0706
2, 0,
0,
0.1423 ln
( | |
= ( |
|
(
\ .
i i
i
z
k z
z
(Eqn. B)
h
h a
V
L n

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VI National Conference on Wind Engineering 2012, Dec. 14-15
where,
f
g
= peak factor defined as the ratio of the expected peak value to the root mean value of a fluctuating
load, and
r = roughness factor which is dependent on the size of the structure in relation to the ground roughness.
The value of
f
g r
is given in Figure. 1.












Figure. 1: Chart for determination of
f
g r
and
h
L


B =background factor indicating a measure of slowly varying component of fluctuating wind load (Figure.
2)









Figure. 2: Chart for determination of Background Factor
where,

C
y
= lateral correlation constant which may be taken as 10 in the absence of more precise load data,
C
z
= longitudinal correlation constant which may be taken as 12 in the absence of more precise load data,
y
z
C b
C h
=

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VI National Conference on Wind Engineering 2012, Dec. 14-15
b = breadth of a structure normal to the wind stream,
h = height of a structure
L
h
= a measure of turbulence length scale














S = size reduction factor (Figure.3)













Figure. 4: Chart for determination of Gust Factor Energy
measure of the resonant component of the fluctuating wind load
SE
|
=
Fig. 3: Chart for determination of Size Reduction Factor


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VI National Conference on Wind Engineering 2012, Dec. 14-15
Reduced Frequency,
0
0
z
h
C f h
F
V
=
h
V = hourly mean wind speed at height h
0
f
= natural frequency of the structure =
0.09
d
h


d = maximum base dimension of building in metres in a direction parallel to the applied wind force
E = measure of available energy in the wind stream at the natural frequency of the structure (Figure.4)
| = damping coefficient (as a fraction of critical damping) of the structure (Table 1)

Table 1: Damping Coefficient of different Structures








4
f
g r B
u = and is to be accounted only for buildings less than 75 m high in terrain Category 4 and for
buildings less than 25 m high in terrain Category 3, and is to be taken as zero in all other cases

4 ALONG WIND LOAD
Along wind load on a structure on a strip area (A
e
) at any height (z) is given by:

z f e z
F C A p G =
f
C =
force coefficient for the building (Figure.5)
Nature of Structure Damping Coefficient, |
Welded Steel Structures 0.010
Bolted Steel Structures 0.020
Reinforced Concrete Structures 0.016

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VI National Conference on Wind Engineering 2012, Dec. 14-15





















Figure. 5: Chart for determination of Force Coefficient

e
A
= effective frontal area considered for the structure at height z
z
p = design pressure at height z due to hourly mean wind obtained as 0.6
z
V .
G = Gust Factor

5 CALCULATION OF ALONG-WIND FORCES ACTING ON A TALL BUILDING USING IS-875
PT-III (1987) & DRAFT CODE (2011)

A hypothetical tall building of 240m height (60 Storeys) rectangular in plan (20mx60m) situated in Wind
Zone IV and Terrain Category 4 is subjected to along wind forces. The bay spacing in either direction of
the building is 5m. The magnitude of storey-wise lateral wind forces in Short and Long After Body
orientation (SAB and LAB) of the building are calculated using Gust Factor Method of both the codes.
Finally, a graph between lateral Along Wind Forces and building height is plotted as shown below in
Figure. 6.

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VI National Conference on Wind Engineering 2012, Dec. 14-15

Figure. 6: Graph showing variation of Along Wind Forces on a 240m tall building

5.1 Observations
1) The curves obtained for Short as well as Long After Body orientation as per the Gust Factor Method
prescribed in Draft code are much smoother than that prescribed in the 1987 wind code.
2) The values of the Along Wind Forces at around 20m building height as per the draft code are three
times higher than the method prescribed in the old code. This is applicable both for the Short and
Long After Body orientation of the building.
3) The curves for Short After Body orientation intersect each other at a height of 140m i.e. force values
almost matches. After this point the curve are more or less co-incident with a maximum variation of
5.11% at 240m height.
4) Similarly, the curves for Long After Body orientation lie very close to each other after a height of
152m with 4.44% variation. The values almost converge at the topmost storey i.e. at 240m height.
6 CALCULATION OF ALONG-WIND FORCES ACTING ON A MICROWAVE TOWER USING IS-
875 PT-III (1987) & DRAFT CODE (2011)
A 21m high microwave tower (Figure. 7) square in plan situated in Wind Zone II and Terrain Category 2 is
subjected to Along Wind forces. The tower consists of ten panels and holds an antenna of 1.2m diameter
at its top. The magnitude of panel-wise lateral wind forces on the tower are calculated using Gust Factor
Method of both the codes. Finally, a graph between lateral Along Wind Forces and tower height is plotted
as shown below in Figure. 8.

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VI National Conference on Wind Engineering 2012, Dec. 14-15


















Figure.7: 21m high Microwave tower considered for study










Figure. 8: Variation of Along Wind Forces on a 21m tall Microwave Tower

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VI National Conference on Wind Engineering 2012, Dec. 14-15
6.1 Observations
1) The lateral forces acting on tower heights of 1.5m to 10.5m are 2.5 times to 1.14 times higher in
case of the old code as compared to the calculations from the new draft code.
2) The curve pattern obtained from both the codes almost matches after a height of 10.5m.
3) The maximum variation of forces after 10.5m tower height is around 13% with a minimum of 6.9%
towards the top.
7 CONCLUSION
The study reveals that the Along Wind Forces both for the Short and Long After Body orientation of the
240m tall building are much conservative as per the Draft Code, only upto a height of 140 metres. Beyond
this height the values start converging and match with that of the calculated values as per the old code.
The drastic increase in the force values found at around 20 metres is basically because of the significant
change in K2 values calculated as per the new formula prescribed in the Draft Code. On the other hand,
the K2 values tabulated in the old code for terrain Category 4 and used for Gust Factor Method, are
constant upto 20m building height with a value as low as 0.24.
In case of the Microwave tower the Along Wind Forces are much conservative as per the Old Code, only
upto a height of 10.5 metres. Beyond this height the values start converging. The drastic decrease in the
force values found at 1.5 metres is basically because of the significant change in K2 values calculated as
per the new formula prescribed in the Draft Code. On the other hand, the K2 values tabulated in the Old
code for terrain Category 2 and used for Gust Factor Method, are constant upto 10m height with a value
as high as 0.67. This results in large differences in the design wind pressure at lower heights which is
ultimately reflected in the lateral forces.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
I would like to offer my sincere thanks to Dr. Achal Kumar Mittal, Principal Scientist, CSIR-Central
Building Research Institute, Roorkee for his continuous motivation and guidance in writing this paper.

REFERENCES
[1]. Krishna, P., Kumar, K. and Bhandari, N.M. A Commentary on Indian Standard Code of Practice for Design
Loads (other than earthquake) for buildings and structures (Part 3) Wind Loads (Second Revision).
Document No. IITK-GSDMA-Wind05-V1.0.

[2]. Krishna, P., Kumar, K. and Bhandari, N.M. IS: 875(Part3): Wind Loads on Buildings and Structures -
Proposed Draft & Commentary. Document No. IITK-GSDMA-Wind02-V5.0.

[3]. Indian Standards (IS). (2011). Draft Indian Standard Code of Practice for Design Loads (other than
earthquake) for Buildings and Structures (Part 3) Wind Loads (Third Revision). Doc: CED37, 7792.

[4]. Indian Standards (IS). (1987). Code of Practice for Design Loads (other than earthquake) for Buildings and
Structures (Part 3), Wind Loads (Second Revision). IS 875 (Part III), New Delhi, India.

[5]. Indian Standards (IS). (2001). Explanatory Handbook on Indian Standard Code of Practice for Design Loads
(other than earthquake) for Buildings and Structures, (Part 3) Wind Loads, IS 875 (Part 3):1987 SP:64, New
Delhi, India.