Exploratory study on wind-adaptable design for super-tall buildings

Wind-adaptable design (WAD) provides a new method for super-tall buildings to lessen design conflicts between architectural prerequisites and aerodynamic requirements, and to increase the efficiency of structural system. Compared to conventional wind-resistant design approach, the proposed new method is to design a building in two consecutive stages: a stage in normal winds and a stage during extreme winds. In majority of time, the required structural capacity is primarily for normal wind effects. During extreme wind storms, the building's capacity to wind loads is reinforced by on-demand operable flow control measures/devices to effectively reduce the loads. A general procedure for using WAD is provided, followed by an exploratory case study to demonstrate the application of WAD.