Probabilistic Performance Criteria for Tall Buildings Subjected to Wind Loads by

Database-assisted design (DAD) uses time histories of pressures simultaneously measured in the wind tunnel at a large number of pressure taps to calculate structural response to wind. DAD, in combination with reliability-based procedures, allows the estimation of load factors in a more site- and structure-specific manner. In this paper we outline the reliability-based, database-assisted design procedure for tall, flexible buildings. The approach used for developing appropriate load factors is an extension of the approach used for low-rise buildings. In addition to the uncertainties relevant to low-rise buildings, the extended approach must take into account the uncertainties in the estimation of the natural frequencies of vibration, the modal shapes, and the damping coefficients. This extension is currently under development at NIST. The probabilistic performance criteria proposed herein account for those uncertainties and integrate information on the directional wind climate and the building’s directional aerodynamics