WIND-STRUCTURE-COUPLING EFFECTS AND BUFFETING RESPONSES

It is evident that the interaction between wind and structure is of great importance for structures such as super tall buildings, towers and guyed masts that have a low fundamental natural frequency. However, little research has been carried out to consider the coupling effects. This paper presents a method for analyzing the wind-induced vibration which takes into account wind-structure coupling effects. The method is developed based on the quasi-stead theory by treating the wind-structure coupling effect as an aerodynamic damping. The buffeting responses of a tall transmission tower are analyzed in detail to demonstrate the method. Numerical results based on Kaimal spectrum and Davenport spectrum are presented. Wind tunnel tests were also carried out. It is shown that numerical predictions based on Kaimal spectrum are in good agreement with experimental observations. The study shows that the wind-structure interaction has a significant effect on the responses of the structure.