ALONG WIND LOAD ON TALL BUILDINGS INDIAN CODAL PROVISIONS

Bodhisatta Hajra1 and P. N. Godbole2

Department of Applied Mechanics
Visvesvaraya National Institute of Technology
Nagpur 440 011, India

ABSTRACT

Most international codes and standards have kept pace with the changing scenario in wind
engineering and have updated their codes and standards. The IS-875 (part-3)-1987 still makes
use of hourly mean wind speed and cumbersome charts to arrive at the Gust Factor for
calculating Along Wind response on a tall building. A document Review of Indian Wind
Code-IS-875 (part-3) 1987,prepared by the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur suggests
revision in the present IS-code to make it consistent and bring it close to the available
international standards. This paper discusses the present IS-code, the revisions suggested by
IIT Kanpur together with other international codes for computing Along Wind response on a
tall building with the help of three examples of tall buildings.

Key Words: Tall Buildings, Along Wind Load, Building Codes, Gust factor.

INTRODUCTION

Most international codes and standards utilize the gust loading factor (GLF) approach for
assessing the dynamic along-wind loads and their effects on tall structures. The concept of the
GLF for civil engineering applications was first introduced by Davenport (1967), following
the statistical treatment of buffering in aeronautical sciences (Liepmann 1952). Several
modifications based on the first GLF model by Davenport followed, which include Vellozzi
and Cohen (1968), Vickery (1970), Simiu and Scanlan (1996), and Solari (1993a,b).
Variations of these models have been adopted by major international codes and standards.

The present Indian Standard for Wind Loads on Buildings and Structures (IS-875 (part-3)-
1987) also recommends Gust Factor (GF) or Gust Effectiveness Factor (GEF) for calculating
along wind load or drag load on flexible slender structures which includes tall buildings. The
procedure makes use of hourly mean wind speed and cumbersome charts to arrive at the Gust
Factor. The proposed revision for IS-875 (part-3)-1987 [prepared by Department of Civil
Engineering, IIT Kanpur under GSDMA project on building codes] simplifies the
computation of along wind load on flexible slender structures using a 3 second gust speed
prevalent in many other international codes and avoids use of charts which were difficult to
interpolate.

In this paper, the procedure recommended by the present IS code and the proposed revisions
have been reviewed in comparison to other international codes of practice. To highlight the
comparison examples on tall building have been selected and the response has been obtained
from present IS code, proposed revision and from other international codes of practice.

1. Post- Graduate Student 2. Visiting Professor

1
 GUST LOADING FACTOR (10)
Following the concept of the GLF approach (Davenport 1967), the peak Equivalent Static
Wind Load (ESWL) on tall buildings provided in codes and standards is described by a
product of the mean wind force and an appropriate amplification factor.

T
P ( z ) G .P ( z ) (1)
Where
T
P (z) = peak ESWL at height z during observation time T, usually one hour (1 h) or 10
minutes (10 min) for most civil engineering applications; superscript = averaging time used

to evaluate the mean wind velocity; and P (z) = mean wind force with averaging time .

P (z) q (z ).C d .B (2)

In which Cd = drag force coefficient; B = width of the building normal to the direction of
wind; and q (z) = 1/2 V (z) 2 = mean wind velocity pressure, where = air density and
V (z) = mean wind velocity evaluated at height z above ground. The gust factor G is given
by

G = G TY / G q (T) (3)

In which G TY = GLF for displacement and G q (T) = gust factor (GF) for wind velocity
pressure. The displacement GLF takes into account the correlation structure of random wind
field, wind structure interaction, and the dynamic amplification introduced by the structure.
Following the current practice in the GLF approach (Davenport 1967), it can be evaluated by

T
T (z) / Y (z)
G TY Y (4)
Where
T And Y T = peak and mean wind-induced displacement response, respectively.
Y

The above discussion clarifies the important role of averaging time in this comparative study.
On the one hand, when = T, the wind load model in Eq. (1) reduces to the general GLF
model by Davenport (1967). On the other hand, when using mean wind velocity with a
shorter averaging time, G in Eq. (1) may be significantly less than the GLF in Eq. (4).
Therefore, it is important to compare the results based on similar averaging times. A summary
of the averaging time for the basic wind velocity or pressure and GLF, employed in codes and
standards is given in Table 1.

All procedures for estimating GLF in major codes and standards are based on the preceding
expressions, but differ in their modeling of the wind field and structural dynamic
characteristics. These details have led to a large scatter in the predicted values of the GLF and
wind load effects based on distinct formulations. Furthermore, as a result of several
mathematical manipulations that have been introduced by individual codes and standards, the
final expressions for the GLF do not follow exactly the same form.

2
 Table-1 Averaging Time in Codes and Standards

ASCE 7 IS 875-1987 AS1170.2-02 Revision IITK

Basic wind velocity or
3s 3 sa 3s 3s
basic wind pressure
Gust loading factor 3s 1h 3s 3s
a
Although the basic wind velocity is defined as 3 s gust in IS 875 (part-3) 1987 it is converted to the
1 h mean wind velocity to evaluate the gust loading factor and the wind-induced response of dynamic
structures.

INDIAN CODAL PROVISIONS FOR ALONG WIND LOAD

The Part 3 of present Indian standard Code of Practice for Design Loads (other than
Earthquake) for Buildings and Structures, deals with the Wind Loads. This code on Wind
Loads IS-875 (part 3) was last revised in 1987 and is due for revision now to incorporate the
current state of knowledge and practice in the area of Wind Engineering. The last 2 3
decades have been witness to substantial progress in the understanding of procedures to
determine design wind speeds from measured wind data as well as of the response to wind of
various kinds of structures, particularly buildings. Most leading codes have tried to keep pace
with this changing scenario. However, the relevant Indian Code, having been drafted in early
eighties and implemented in 1987, has remained as such and there are apparently no moves
to revise the same in near future.

Noting that the Indian Standard Code of Practice on Wind Loads IS 875 (part-3) 1987 needs
revision to keep pace with the other International Standards, the Department of Civil
Engineering at Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur, under Gujarat State Disaster
Management Authority Project (GSDMA project) took up this initiative of revising the
present Indian Standard Code of Practice on Wind Loads. A document Review of Indian
Wind Code IS 875 (part 3)-1987, was released in 2004 incorporating up-to-date state of
knowledge in Wind Engineering very similar to available in other international standards.
This document will immensely help the Bureau of Indian Standards, as and when it takes up
the revision of IS-875 (part 3)-1987.

There are major differences in computation of along wind load between the present Indian
Standard on Wind Loads (IS-875 (part 3)-1987) and the proposed revision document prepared
by Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur (Revision IITK) which have been summarized
below :-

(a) IS 875 (part 3) 1987

The code gives only the methods of calculating along wind or drag load by using gust
factor method. Further, the code recommends the use of hourly mean wind speed for
the computation of Gust factor and gives a procedure to obtain hourly mean wind speed
from regional basic wind speed. The procedure to obtain the gust factor is rather
involved as it requires use of four figures to obtain certain variables. The figures
contain closely spaced curves which make the interpolation difficult and approximate.

Along wind load on a structure on a strip area (Ae) at any height (z) is given by,
Fz = Cf . Ae. p z . G (5)
Where
Fz = along wind load on the structure at any height z corresponding to strip area Ae,
Cf = force coefficient for the building,
Ae = effective frontal area considered for the structure at height z,

3
 p z = design pressure at height z due to hourly mean wind obtained as
= 0.6 Vz2 (N/m2) (6) and
V z = Vb k1 k 2 k3 (7)
Where
V z = hourly mean wind speed in m/s, at height z;
Vb = regional basic wind speed in m/s
k1 = risk coefficient
k 2 = terrain, height and structure size factor; and
k3 = topography factor
peak load
G = gust factor = , and is given by :
mean load
SE
B 1
2
G = 1+ gf r (8)

To compute Gust factor, the values of gfr, B, S and E are interpolated from the figures
given in the code of practice. Also, is damping coefficient as given in Table 2 and
= gf r B / 4 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.

Table 2 Damping Coefficient ()

Nature of Structure Damping Coefficient,

Welded steel structures 0.010
Bolted steel structures 0.020
Reinforced or prestressed concrete 0.020
structures

(b) REVISION IITK

In the document Review of Indian Wind Code IS 875 (part-3) 1987, the method to
obtain the along wind load using gust factor method is very much similar to revised
Australian Code AS/NZ 1170.2 02. The gust factor is renamed as Dynamic Response
Factor (Cdyn) and is calculated using 3 sec gust speed and set of expressions which do
not involve use of figures or charts. Thus the calculations are rather straight forward
and simple.

Along wind load on a structure on a strip area (Ae) at any height (z) is given by:

Fz = Cf Ae pz Cdyn (9)
Where:
Fz = along wind load on the structure at any height z corresponding to strip area Ae,
Cf = force coefficient for the building,
Ae = effective frontal area considered for the structure at height z,
pz = design pressure at height z due to 3sec wind gust velocity obtained as
pz = 0.6 Vz2 (N/m2), (10)
Cdyn = Dynamic Response Factor (= total load/ mean load), and is given by:

4
 0.5
2 H g SE
2

1 2 I h g v Bs s R

C dyn
1 2 g v I h
where
Ih = turbulence intensity, obtained from Table 3 by setting z equal to h
gv = peak factor for the upwind velocity fluctuations, which shall be taken as 3.5
Bs = background factor, which is a measure of the slowly varying background
component of the fluctuating response, caused by low frequency wind speed
variations, given as follows :
1
Bs
1

36(h s) 2 64b sh
2 0.5

2L h

Hs = height factor for the resonant response = 1 + (s/h)2

gR = peak factor for resonant response (1 hour period)

TABLE 3: TURBULENCE INTENSITY (IZ)

Height (z) m Terrain Terrain Terrain Terrain

category 1 category 2 category 3 category 4
10 0.157 0.183 0.239 0.342
15 0.152 0.176 0.225 0.342
20 0.147 0.171 0.215 0.342
30 0.140 0.162 0.203 0.305
40 0.133 0.156 0.195 0.285
50 0.128 0.151 0.188 0.270
75 0.118 0.140 0.176 0.248
100 0.108 0.131 0.166 0.233
150 0.095 0.117 0.150 0.210
200 0.085 0.107 0.139 0.196
250 0.080 0.098 0.129 0.183
300 0.074 0.092 0.121 0.173
400 0.068 0.082 0.108 0.155
500 0.058 0.074 0.098 0.141

(c) AUSTRALIAN AND AMERICAN STANDARDS ON WIND LOADS

The Australian Standard AS/NSZ 1170.2 02 Structural design actions part 2 : Wind
Actions and American Standard ASCE 7-02 American Society of Civil Engineers :
Minimum Design Loads for Buildings and other Structures uses 3 sec Gust Speed for
defining the basic wind velocity and for evaluating the Gust Loading factor.
Table 1 gives the averaging time in various codes and standards while Table 4
summarizes the expressions for gust factors and other variables used in the various
codes and standards.

5
 Table 4

IS-875 (PART-3)-1987 REVISION IITK / AS 1170.2 0.2 ASCE 7 0.2

Cdyn = {1+2Ih [gv2Bs+(Hs gR2 SE/ 0.5
)] }
G=1+gfr B 1 SE /
2
Gf=0.925(1+1.7 Iz(gQ2Q2+gR2R2)0.5)/(1+1.7 gV Iz)
{1+2 gv Ih}
B To be found from
Bs=1/ [[1+36(h-s)2+64bsh2]0.5/(2Lh)] Q=(1/(1+0.63 ((B+h)/Lz)0.63))0.5
fig.9, page-50
E To be found from
E=N/(1+70 N2)(5/6) Rn=7.47 N1/(1+10.3N1)(5/3)
Fig.11, page52
Fo=12 fo h/Vh N= foLh{1+(gV Ih)}/Vh N1=n1 Lz/Vz

IzNot taken into account Iz Obtained from Table 32, page-87 Iz=c (33/Z) (1/6), [Values of c from table-6-2]
From figure.8, page-50,
found as a function of gV=3.5 gV=3.4
building height
G,Gf = Gust factor Bs Q = Background factor
E,Rn = Gust energy factor N1,N,F0 = Reduced frequency
Iz = Turbulence intensity factor gV = Peak factor for upwind velocity
Vh/Vdes = Design wind speed

APPLICATION TO TALL BUILDINGS

Three tall buildings have been analyzed to compare the estimates of along wind load effects
as obtained from present IS Code, revision IITK (Australian) and American Standards. The
building particulars are given in Table 5 and table of formulations are presented in Table 4
for Gust factor. The shear force and bending moment plots for various buildings are presented
in figures-1 through 6.

Table 5 - Building particulars

PARAMETER BUILDING-1 BUILDING-2 BUILDING-3

HEIGHT 60m 96m 200m
BREADTH 50m 24m 33m
LEAST LATERAL DIMENSION 10m 12m 33m
TERRAIN CATEGORY 2 3 4
BASIC WIND SPEED 50m/s 50m/s 50m/s

NOTE: Breadth of the building is considered normal to the wind direction

6
 SHEAR FORCE V/S HEIGHT BENDING MOMENT V/S HEIGHT

70 70
60 60
HEIGHT(m)

HEIGHT(m)
50 IS-875-PART-3,1987 50 IS-875,PART-3,1987
40 40
IS-DRAFT/AUS. IS-DRAFT/AUS
30 30
20 ASCE-7 20 ASCE-7
10 10
0 0
0 2000 4000 6000 8000 0 100000 200000 300000
SHEAR FORCE(kN) BENDING MOMENT(kN-m)

Fig-1 Fig-2
SHEAR FORCE AND BENDING MOMENT FOR 60 m TALL BUILDING(TC-2)

SHEAR FORCE V/S HEIGHT BENDING MOMENT V/S HEIGHT

120 150
HEIGHT(m)

100
100 IS-875,PART-
HEIGHT(m)

80 IS-875,PART-3,1987
3,1987
60 IS-DRAFT/AUS 50
40 ASCE-7 IS-
0 DRAFT/AUS
20
0 200000 400000 ASCE-7
0
BENDING MOMENT(kN-
0 2000 4000 6000 8000
m)
SHEAR FORCE(kN)

Fig-3 Fig-4
SHEAR FORCE AND BENDING MOMENT FOR 96 m TALL BUILDING (TC-3)

SHEAR FORCE V/S HEIGHT BENDING MOMENT V/S HEIGHT

250 250
200 200
HEIGHT(m)

HEIGHT(m)

IS-875,PART-3,1987 IS-875,PART-3,1987
150 150
IS-DRAFT/AUS IS-DRAFT/AUS
100 100
ASCE-7 ASCE-7
50 50
0 0
0 5000 10000 15000 20000 0 50000 1E+06 2E+06 2E+06 3E+06
SHEAR FORCE(kN) 0
BENDING MOMENT(kN-m)

Fig-5 Fig-6

SHEAR FORCE AND BENDING MOMENT FOR 200 m TALL BUILDING (TC-4)

7
 CONCLUSIONS

The computation of along Wind Load as per the present IS 875 (part 3) 1987 is cumbersome
and difficult to program as it uses various charts. Further the present code makes use of mean
hourly wind velocity, which is not consistent with other International Codes. The suggested
Revision IITK uses 3 second gust speed for computation of Gust factor (Dynamic Response
factor) and gives a set of expressions to evaluate the Gust factor and hence the along wind
load.

For 60 m tall building in the terrain category-2, the present IS-code gives higher values of
shear forces and bending moment as compared to Revision IITK (Australian) and ASCE-7
codes of practice (fig.1 and 2). While for the 96 m building in terrain category-3, all the three
codes give comparable values of shear forces and bending moment (fig.3 and 4). For the 200
m tall building in terrain category-4 the present IS code gives much lesser values for shear
force and bending moment than Revision IITK (Australian) and ASCE-7(fig.5 and 6)The
Revision IITK (Australian) and ASCE give comparable values of shear force and bending
moment for all the three buildings for respective categories, while present IS code gives
higher values for 60 m building and much lower values for the 200 m building, suggesting
need for revision to obtain values consistent with other international codes.

REFERENCES

1. Davenport (1967). Gust loading factors. J. Struct. Div., ASCE, 93(3), 11-34.
2. Liepmann 1952 On the application of statistical concepts to the buffeting problem, J.
Aeronaut. Sci., 19(12), 793-800.
3. Vellozzi and Cohen (1968) Gust response factors J. Struct. Div., ASCE, 94(6), 1295-
1313.
4. Vickery (1970) On the reliability of gust loading factors Proc., Technical Meeting
Concerning Wind Loads on Buildings and Structures, Building Science Series 30,
National Bureau of Standards, Washington, D. C., 296-312.
5. Simiu and Scanlan (1996) Wind effects on structures: Fundamentals and application to
design, 3rd Ed., Wiley, New York.
6. Solari (1993 a) Gust buffeting. I: Peak wind velocity and equivalent pressure. J. Struct.
Eng., 119(2), 365-382.
7. Solari (1993 b) Gust buffeting. II: Dynamic along-wind response. J. Struct. Eng.,
119(2), 383-397.
8. IS 875 (part 3) 1987 Wind Loads Bureau of Indian Standards, Manak Bhawan,
New Delhi.
9. Review of Indian Wind Code IS 875 (part 3) 1987 Document No. IITK GSDMA
Wind 01 V 2.0, IITK GSDMA Project on Building Codes, Department of Civil
Engineering, IIT Kanpur, India (2004).
10. Yin Zhao, Tracey Kijewski and Ahsan Kareem Along Wind Load Effects on Tall
Buildings : Comparative Study of Major International Codes and Standards ASCE,
Journal of Structural Engineering, Vol 128, No. 6, 2002, pp 788 796.