Artificial Neural Networks (ANN) have the capability to develop functional relationships between input-output patterns obtained from any source. Thus ANN can be conveniently used to develop a generalised relationship from limited and sometimes inconsistent data, and can therefore also be applied to tackle the data obtained from wind tunnel tests on building models with large number of variables. In this paper ANN model has been developed for predicting wind induced pressures in various zones of a Gable Building from limited test data. The procedure is also extended to a case wherein interference effects on a gable roof building by a similar building are studied. It is found that the Artificial Neural Network modelling is seen to predict successfully, the pressure coefficients for any roof slope that has not been covered by the experimental study. It is seen that ANN modelling can lead to a reduction of the wind tunnel testing effort for interference studies to almost half.

This paper reports the numerical calculations of uniform turbulent shear flow around a square cylinder. The predictions are obtained by solving the two-dimensional unsteady Navier-Stokes equations in a finite volume technique. The turbulent fluctuations are simulated by the standard $k-{\varepsilon}$ model and one of its variant which takes care of the realizability constraint in order to suppress the excessive generation of turbulence in a stagnation condition. It has been found that the Strouhal number and the mean drag coefficient are almost unaffected by the shear parameter but the mean lift coefficient is increased. The present predictions are compared with available experimental data.

Wind flow and pressure on the roof of the Texas Tech Experimental Building are studied along with the incident wind in an effort to understand the wind-structure interaction and the mechanisms of roof pressure generation. Two distinct flow phenomena, cornering vortices and separation bubble, are investigated. It is found for the cornering vortices that the incident wind angle that favors formation of strong vortices is bounded in a range of approximately 50 degrees symmetrical about the roof-corner bisector. Peak pressures on the roof corner are produced by wind gusts approaching at wind angles conducive to strong vortex formation. A simple analytical model is established to predict fluctuating pressure coefficients on the leading roof corner from the knowledge of the mean pressure coefficients and the incident wind. For the separation bubble situation, the mean structure of the separation bubble is established. The role of incident wind turbulence in pressure-generation mechanisms for the two flow phenomena is better understood.

This paper describes a simple method for evaluating the design wind loads for the structural frames of circular flat roofs with long spans. The dynamic response of several roof models were numerically analyzed in the time domain as well as in the frequency domain by using wind pressure data obtained from a wind tunnel experiment. The instantaneous displacement and bending moment of the roof were computed, and the maximum load effects were evaluated. The results indicate that the wind-induced oscillation of the roof is generally dominated by the first mode and the gust effect factor approach can be applied to the evaluation of the maximum load effects. That is, the design wind load can be represented by the time-averaged wind pressure multiplied by the gust effect factor for the first mode. Based on the experimental results for the first modal force, an empirical formula for the gust effect factor is provided as a function of the geometric and structural parameters of the roof and the turbulence intensity of the approach flow. The equivalent design pressure coefficients, which reproduce the maximum load effects, are also discussed. A simplified model of the pressure coefficient distribution is presented.

Wind tunnel aeroelastic model tests of the Commonwealth Advisory Aeronautical Research Council (CAARC) standard tall building were conducted using a three-degree-of-freedom base hinged aeroelastic(BHA) model. Experimental investigation into the effects of coupled translational-torsional motion, cross-wind/torsional frequency ratio and eccentricity between centre of mass and centre of stiffness on the wind-induced response characteristics and wind excitation mechanisms was carried out. The wind tunnel test results highlight the significant effects of coupled translational-torsional motion, and eccentricity between centre of mass and centre of stiffness, on both the normalised along-wind and cross-wind acceleration responses for reduced wind velocities ranging from 4 to 20. Coupled translational-torsional motion and eccentricity between centre of mass and centre of stiffness also have significant impacts on the amplitude-dependent effect caused by the vortex resonant process, and the transfer of vibrational energy between the along-wind and cross-wind directions. These resulted in either an increase or decrease of each response component, in particular at reduced wind velocities close to a critical value of 10. In addition, the contribution of vibrational energy from the torsional motion to the cross-wind response of the building model can be greatly amplified by the effect of resonance between the vortex shedding frequency and the torsional natural frequency of the building model.