Full-scale measurements of typhoon effects on a super RC tall building based on a remote monitoring system

This paper presents the field measurement results of wind effects on the world's tallest reinforced concrete building (CITIC Plaza, 391 m high) located in Guangzhou during the passage of typhoon Pabuk on August 10, 2007. The field data such as wind speed, wind direction and acceleration responses were simultaneously and continuously recorded from the tall building by a remote monitoring system. Detailed analysis of the field data was carried out to investigate the wind effects on the super tall building. The characteristics of the typhoon-generated wind including turbulence intensity, gust factor, turbulence integral length scale and power spectral density of fluctuating wind speed were analyzed. The dynamic characteristics of the buildings were determined from the field measurements and comparison with those calculated from the computational model of the building was made. The measured natural frequencies of the two fundamental sway modes of the building were found to be larger than those calculated. The damping ratios of the building were evaluated by random decrement technique, which demonstrated obvious amplitude-dependent characteristics and increased with increasing amplitude of the building during Typhoon Pabuk.