Dynamic response of tall buildings to wind loads by reduced order equivalent shear-beam models

Two equivalent beam models are proposed in order to estimate the dynamic response of tall buildings affected by wind loads. The first model is based on the Timoshenko beam, which assumes bending and shear stiffness to be in series. The second model considers bending and shear stiffness to be in parallel. The parameters of the two equivalent beams are calibrated using the data of a complete structural system and imposing both the value of suitable displacements (static approach) and the value of the first natural frequencies (dynamic approach). Numerical analyses are performed using wind tunnel loads and FEM models. The accuracy of the dynamic response of the two equivalent beam models is assessed by comparison to a complete FEM model describing the structural system of a case study tall building. Furthermore, the ability of the equivalent shear-beam models to describe the random features of dynamic response is assessed using the first four statistical moments of the dynamic response.