Aerodynamics of tapered and set-back buildings using Detached-eddy simulation

The tapered and set-back type of unconventional designs have been used earlier in many buildings. These shapes are aerodynamically efficient and offer a significant amount of damping against wind-induced forces and excitations. Various studies have been conducted on these shapes earlier. The present study adopts a hybrid approach of turbulence modelling i.e., Detached-eddy Simulation (DES) to investigate the effect of height modified tapered and set-back buildings on aerodynamic forces and their sensitivity towards pressure. The modifications in the flow field around the building models are also investigated and discussed. Three tapering ratios (T.R.= (Bottom width- Top width)/Height) i.e., 5%, 10%, 15% are considered for tapered and set-back buildings. The results show that, mean and RMS along-wind and across-wind forces are reduced significantly for the aerodynamically modified buildings. The extent of reduction in the forces increases as the taper ratio is increased, however, the set-back modifications are more worthwhile than tapered showing greater reduction in the forces. The pressure distribution on the surfaces of the buildings are analyzed and in the last section, the influence of the flow field on the forces is discussed.