Cross Correlations of Modal Responses of Tall Buildings in Wind-Induced Lateral-Torsional Motion

Recent trends towards developing increasingly taller and irregularly-shaped buildings imply that these complex structures are potentially more responsive to wind excitation. Making accurate predictions of wind loads and their effects on such structures is therefore a necessary step in the design synthesis process. This paper presents a framework for dynamic analysis of the wind-induced lateral-torsional response of tall buildings with three-dimensional (3D) mode shapes. The cross correlation reflecting the statistical coupling among modal responses under spatiotemporally varying dynamic wind excitations has been investigated in detail. The effects of intermodal correlations on the lateral-torsional response of tall buildings with 3D mode shapes and closely spaced natural frequencies are elucidated and a more accurate method for quantifying intermodal cross correlations is analytically developed. Utilizing the wind tunnel derived synchronous multipressure measurements, a full-scale 60-story asymmetric building of mixed steel and concrete construction is used to illustrate the proposed framework for the coupled dynamic analysis and highlight the intermodal correlation of modal responses on the accurate prediction of coupled building acceleration.