The role of aerodynamic modifications in the form of tall buildings against wind excitation

Modern tall buildings go higher and higher with the advances in structural design and high strength materials. However, every advance in height comes with a new difficulty. Efficient structural systems, high strength materials, and increased height, result with decrease in building weight and damping, and increase in slenderness. On the other hand, as the height and slenderness increase, buildings suffer from increased flexibility, which has negative effects in wind loading. Flexible structures are affected by vibration under the action of wind which cause building motion, and plays an important role in the structural and architectural designs. Understandably, contemporary tall buildings are much more vulnerable to wind excitation than their predecessors. Hence, different design methods and modifications are possible in order to ensure the functional performance of flexible structures and control the wind induced motion of tall buildings. An extremely important and effective design approach among these methods is aerodynamic modifications in architecture. In this context, the authors classify these aerodynamic modifications in architecture for resisting the lateral loads. Wind safe tall building design begins with the architect, and the influence of the wind action must be taken into consideration from the very beginning of the architectural design process by considering building aerodynamics.