Analysis of Highrise Building using Computational Fluid Dynamics

Approach: A Case Study on 38-Storey Highrise Building

by

Ehsan Vafaeihosseini, Azadeh Sagheb, Pradeep Kumar Ramancharla

in

Structural Engineering World Congress

Report No: IIIT/TR/2011/-1

Centre for Earthquake Engineering

International Institute of Information Technology
Hyderabad - 500 032, INDIA
April 2011
 Analysis of Highrise Building using Computational Fluid Dynamics Approach: A
Case Study on 38-Storey Highrise Building
Ehsan Vafaeihosseini1; Azadeh Sagheb2 and Ramancharla Pradeep Kumar3

Summary

Analysis and design of high-rise buildings for lateral load such as wind load and earthquake are the major issues
which are playing significant role in recent decades .This paper describes a recent application of the computational
fluid dynamics technique for wind analysis. Conventional wind analysis suggests wind tunnel experiment for arriving
at the wind forces for a given structural form. As a case study a regural 38-story high-rise building (Jamieson place,
Calgary Canada) made of concrete with shear wall ,built in downtown Calgary 2010 is selected. It is assumed that
the building is located in highly seismic area. The design objective was to develop most cost-effective structural
system while meeting building functionality goals and adhering to code requirement. The main structural design
issues considered in this building are reviewed: Static analysis, Dynamic Analysis, Wind Analysis and Stability
Analysis. Initial static and dynamic analysis is conducted in SAP and later wind analysis is conducted in Ansys as
opposed to wind tunnel experiments. The building model is modeled in Ansys workbench and then the mesh file is
imported to Ansys CFX for CFD simulation and analysis. After CFD analysis the wind forces on the building model
are extracted in Ansys CFX-Post and imported to the structural model in SAP 2000 for the structural analysis.

Key words

Wind analysis, Wind tunnel,Computational Fluid Dynamics , Ansys workbench , Ansys CFX , SAP 2000.

Theme

High-rise buildings lateral loads Static Analysis Dynamic Analysis Economic Structural Form.

Introduction

In the last decade, significant developmentys in architectural expression and in incresing demand for lighter and taller
buildings resulted in a systematical evolution of structural systems. The structural systems of tall buildings must carry
vertical gravity loads, but lateral loads, such as those due to wind and earthquakes, are also a major consideration.
Maximum 100-year-interval wind forces differ considerably with location; in the interiors of continents they are
typically about 100 kilograms per square metre (20 pounds per square foot) at ground level. In coastal areas, where
cyclonic storms such as hurricanes and typhoons occur, maximum forces are higher, ranging upward from about 250
kilograms per square metre (50 pounds per square foot). Wind forces also increase with building height to a constant
or gradient value as the effect of ground friction diminishes. The maximum design wind forces in tall buildings are
about 840 kilograms per square metre (170 pounds per square foot) in typhoon areas.(Ref.4,6) Thus, wind is one of
the significant forces of nature that must be considered in the design of buildings because of its pressure impacts on
building by incresing the lateral load portion on building which results in much more investing in construction process.

1Graduate Student, Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University,Hyderabad/India ehsanvafaee@gmail.com

2Graduate Student, Jawaharlal Nehru Architecture and Fine Arts University,Hyderabad/India asagheb@gmail.com
3Associate Professor & Head, Earthquake Engineering Research Centre,IIIT Hyderabad/ India. ramancharla@iiit.ac.in
This paper is suppose to analyse a 38-story building under four different wind angels to find the most cost-effective
structural system. Wind tunnel experiments are used to see the influence of the buildings shape on the wind load.

Figure.1-Jamieson Place, Source;Flicker Figure.2-Plan

Architectural details

Jamieson Place is a skyscraper in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. It was named in honour of Alice Jamieson (the first
female to be appointed to any judiciary in the British Empire). Jamieson Place is a 38-storey commercial
development comprised of a 3-storey podium and an office tower. It is a landmark building with strong architectural
signature elements at street level and the skyline. (Ref.1)

The overriding architectural motif is in Frank Lloyd Wrights prairie style utilizing contemporary material palette and
color. Wrights sculptural prairie style columns inspire the tower massing, whereas the podium, winter garden and
+15 bridges are inspired by Wrights stain glass motifs.(Ref.1)

The podium also contains a large public amenity space on the 3rd floor level that is a fitness club. Large windows
looking onto the street provide visual connections to the street life and vice versa. This promotes a theater-like
atmosphere of see and be seen that is essential in the vitality of city streets.(Ref.1)

Geometric details

The complex includes an underground 5 level,22,000 m2 parkade with 500 stalls and a 3-story high indoor winter
garden. It is connected to the east and north by a Plus 15 skywalk, with expansion planned towards the west to the
nearby Westin Hotel. The office space covers 85,471 m2.The roof of the 38 floors tower rise to a height of 152 m The
spires are lit during the night.(Ref.2)

The building has been shaped in a rectangular and symmetric plan with 52 coulmns. For bearing the total load of the
building in addition to the coulmns, shearwalls also have been designed and implemented.(Figure.2)

Reasons for building selection

For starting our project, first of all we needed to identify a high-rise building and later on to do whole the experiments
to get the results. Absolutely, we were searching for a high-rise building by regular rectangular shaped plan for
getting the proper answer and results after applying latteral/wind load on the building. Thus we started to work on the
selected building to approach our aim.

1. Static Analysis

As all of us khow a static load is one which does not vary. Static analysis are terms for simplified analysis wherein the
effect of an immediate change to a system is calculated without respect to the longer term response of the system to
that change. Such analysis typically are the basic datum for working in SAP software.

1.1. Gravity and live load analysis

Columns size are taken same for 38 storey as 750 750 mm.There are four types of beams;
size of 250 450 mm , 500 900, 700 1100 and 900 1200 are considered for the modeled building. Loading
considered on the building for the study are as self weight of the structural elements(792187 Kn) and Live
load(334790 Kn). By completing static analysis in SAP 2000 the quantity of Concrete and Steel has been gotten as;
519 Ton Steel and 6064 m3 Concrete.

1.2. Selection of earthquake ground motion

This paper is used IS : 1893 1984 (INDIAN Standard-Fourth revision, clause 3.4) related to design seismic
coefficient for different zones. The seismic zone IV is selected as the case study area which the zone factor for
average acceleration spectera is 0.25 . The type of soil mainly constituting the foundation is selected as type II. All
of these effective factors are defined in SAP sofware for completing the analysis process.
1.3. Dynamic analysis

In opposite with static load a dynamic load is one which changes with time. If it changes slowly, the structure's
response may be determined with static analysis, but if it varies quickly (relative to the structure's ability to respond),
the response must be determined with a dynamic analysis.

2. CFD Wind Analysis

All high-rise buildings are complex and responsible constructions and practically all of them are raised with unique
projects; therefore, in order to provide exactness in calculations of wind load for such buildings it is necessary to pre-
model aerodynamic conditions for the selected building with the help of a wind tunnel. Wind flow simulation studies
were performed with Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) software. One of the major advantages of computer-
based method over wind tunnels and field investigations is the modeling flexibility . On the computer the inflow
characteristics and model geometry can be modified easily, and a range of effects can be studied, which would
otherwise be expensive and time consuming with conventional approaches.
2.1. Calculation of wind load

For doing CFD wind analysis, two models is defined in Ansys work bench; first one is a cubic shape of the building
(case study) which has its actual dimensions and the second one is creating a proper cubic tunnel which the model
building locates in it. The wind tunnel should be big enough inorder to have a easy flow of the wind to get the proper
results. Afterward, the direction of wind flow has been determined in CFD space. Since wind pressures exerted on a
structure depend on the speed of the wind, the eqn (1) has been used for calculating the wind profile of the model. By
entering this input to CFD, lots of out puts will come out which one of them is CFX which gives the wind load on the
different surfaces of the building under different angels-angels should be defined in Ansys work bench-.

Equation1: (Ref.7) ( ) (e.g.1)

Where U=wind speed, y=height co-ordinate, =Atmospheric Boundary Layer friction velocity, k=von Karman
constant.

Figure3.Wind Pressure under0 degree direction Figure4.Wind Pressure under30 degree direction

As the Figure3 shows, wind flows in the x-direction and the structure makes zero degree by wind direction. The
maximum pressure is on the surface of the building which is perpendicular to the x axis while the pressure on the
parallel surface of the model is lesser. By the same figure, the minimum pressure occurs on the smaller surface of
the structure located on the opposite side of the direct wind pressure surface.

As the figure4 reveals, structure rotated under 30 degree to the x-axis. By having a comparision between figure 3 and
4, it can be observed that the maximum wind distributed on the two sides of the structure (figure 3), and the area of
the surface that wind touch is increased and causes overturning the high rise building.

Figure5.Wind Pressure under 60degree direction Figure6.Wind Pressure under 90 degree direction

In figure5, the model has 60 degree angel with x-axis which causes incresing in touching surface with wind direction.
Thus,although there is no perpendicular surface with the wind axis but the maximum pressure is higher than the zero
and 30 degree rotation.
It can be observed from figure6, wind is flowing under perpendicular direction with the structure which means the
maximum pressure of wind will be occured on the building. By comparing the impact of wind pressure under zero and
90 degree (Figure3,6) with each other it can be understood that the maximum pressure has been increased in the
second option because the bigger furface of the model is infront of the wind flowing while in 30 degree the smaller
one is there.

Comparing these four case angels shows that the wind flowing under 90 degree has the most contact with the
structure therefore it is bearing the most wind pressure among the other angels and also zero degree is under the
minimum wind pressure.(Figure3,4,5,6)

2.2. Base shear vs wind direction

By exporting the out puts of Ansys to Sap it is possible to analysis the building under the wind load. Whenever the
wind flows on a high-rise structure there is a interaction between them; wind trends to collapse the structure thus the
structure reacts by the same amount of force but on the opposite direction to overcome to the wind pressure.Figures
7 to 10 show the columns respond infront of the wind flow under zero,30 ,60 and 90 degree angels.

Figure7.Base Shear of building under 0 degree wind Figure8.Base Shear of building under 30 degree wind

Figure9.Base Shear of building under 60 degree wind Figure10.Base Shear of building under 90 degree wind
 Figure11.Columns of model

Table 1,2- Dependance of Base Shear on Wind Direction

Table3-Dependance of Max Base Shear on Wind Angel Table4-Dependance of Min Base Shear on Wind Angel

By table 3 the maximum base shear of the building infront of the different angels of wind flow are happening on
columns C4,C5,C11 and C19 which under zero degree wind pressure column C4 is bearing the highest load (1321
KN), under 30 degree C11 (2066 KN), under wind flow by 60 degree C19 (2683 KN) and under 90 degree wind flow
C5 should bear 5706 KN which is the most highest force between all of the cases.

In table 4 the minimum base shear of the building has been demonstrated. It can be observed that between all of
them C19 is bearing the lowest pressure of the wind(61KN) and C5 under should tolerate 156 KN under30 degree
wind force.
 Table2-Average Base Shear Table 3- Dependance of Cocrete and Steel Quantity on Wind Direction

2.3. Design

Table2 shows that the average base reaction of the building under zero degree wind flow is the lowest (1066KN)
while under 90 degree wind angel is 2875 KN. It means that under zero degree the building should tolerate lower
load pressure rather than the wind by 90 degree angel.

By Table3, the quantity of required concrete in the model building under zero degree wind flow is minimum(6975 m3)
while this quantity under 90 degree is maximum(9997 m3) and 30 degree and 60 degree are in the middle. As it can
be vividly observed in Table2, the same scenario is happening about the quantity of steel and structure under zero
degree wind pressure needs the lowest amount of steel (541 Ton) and 90 degree wind dictates the highest amount of
steel in structure(630 Ton) while the model needs 545 Ton steel under 30 degree wind pressure and 578 Ton by 60
degree wind flow.

Results and Discussion

According to the whole analysis and design processes on the modeled case study under different angels of wind
flow, the most economic option for the selected building as a symmetric and rectangular shape is having zero degree
angel with the wind direction, in the other word, putting the smaller side of the building aligned with the wind flow will
put lower pressure as lateral load on the building which it means it is not necessary to use more building materials for
reinforcing and strengthening the structure for overcoming on the additional lateral load and preventing from
overturning.

As the final analysis , befor construction and specially in the architectural details designing , it is important to check
ou t which direction of building the high rise buildings in front of the wind is most cost-efficient .

Conclusions

References

[1] Jamieson Place, Calgary, available at http://www.jamiesonplace.com/. (Access 7Sep 2010)

[2] Jamison Place vailable at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jamieson_Place_%28Calgary%29 .(Access 7 Sep 2010)

[3] Images are available at http://www.flickr.com/photos/52241138@N00/4474797857/sizes/s/in/photostream/

[4] High-rise Structures available at http://theconstructor.org/structural-engg/high-rise-structures/5/ (accessed

11Nov.2010)

[5] Wind Pressure on Buildings available at http://www.glenridge.on.ca/pdf/cbd034e.pdf. (accessed Dec. 2010)

[6] Wind speed in different places, available at http://www.uv.es/EBRIT/macro/macro_5000_91_53.html. (Accessed
Oct.2010)

[7] Bert Blocken, Ted Stathopoulos, Jan Carmeliet, On equilibrium wind speed and turbulence profiles for CFD
simulation of atmospheric boundary layer flows, The fourth International Symposium on Computational Wind
Engineering(CWE2006). Yokohama, 2006.

[8] Indian Standard,IS 1893 : 1984, Indian Standard Criteria for Earthquake Resistant Design of Structures(Fourth
Revision).

[9] Indian Standard, IS 456 : 2000, Plain and Reinforced Concrete Code for Practice(Fourth Revision)

[10] Indian Standard ,IS : 875 ( Part 2 ) 1987 (Reaffirmed 1997) Code Of Practice For Design Loads (Other Than
Earthquake) ,For Buildings and Structures ,Part 2 Imposed Loads (Second Revision) Sixtll Reprint JUNE 1998.
[11]