Numerical simulation of two-way fluid-structure interaction of wind loading on buildings

Fluid-structure interaction has been largely utilized in wind turbine, but the related studies on building wind loading are relatively less frequent. In this study, a numerical study was carried out to investigate the wind load characteristics of a building based on two-way fluid-structure interaction, where synchronous interactions between wind and building were considered. Based on the comparison with experiments, it was indicated that a grid size of 0.4 m is adequate for a 6 m cube model and a computational zone with a domain of 25 m high and 50 m long is enough for the target problem in this study. It was also known that large eddy simulation provides the best fit with experiments, followed by detached eddy simulation, where the k-epsilon, k-omega and shear stress transport models give higher predictions. To provide reliable numerical results for building wind analysis, a computational domain with at least 4 times of the building height and 8 times of building length were suggested, while no strict requirement was shown for the domain width when it is longer than 20 m. The research outcomes can provide a technical guide on the applications of building wind analysis.