Across-wind responses of an aeroelastic tapered tall building

To investigate the effect of tapering on reducing the rms across-wind displacement responses of a tall building, an experiment using an aeroelastic tapered model of a tall building was conducted in a wind tunnel which simulated the suburban environment. Three aeroelastic, tapered, tall building models with taper ratios of 5%, 10% and 15%, and one basic model of a square cross-section without a taper were tested. The tapering effect appeared when the reduced velocity was high and the structural damping ratio had a moderate value of 2–4%. However, the increase in tapering could have an adverse effect, increasing the rms across-wind displacement responses when the structural damping ratio is very low.