Wind-induced vibration performance of early Chinese hall-style timber buildings

Traditional Chinese timber buildings are lightweight, flexible, and quite vulnerable to wind. This paper aims to present a methodology for evaluating the wind-induced vibration performance of early Chinese hall-style timber buildings based on numerical simulations. First, the architectural and structural characteristics of early Chinese hall-style timber buildings were presented and analyzed. It is found that the main hall of the Tianning Temple can be considered a representative to carry out the research. Second, the wind pressure coefficients of the main hall were determined via computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulation. Finally, the time-series wind pressures were generated, and the wind-induced vibration performance was analyzed by the finite-element method (FEM). The CFD simulation results show that the eave corners bear the maximum wind suction, and the windward pediment bears the maximum wind pressure. The FEM analysis has revealed that the lateral structural stiffness in the depth direction is smaller. Under the depth-direction wind load, most of the large displacement occurs intensively at the middle part of the windward frames. The structural response is dominated mainly by the top three vibration modes. The time-series wind vibration coefficients are larger than the code values by a factor of 1.39–1.82. This study can provide a reference for evaluating the wind-induced vibration performance of early Chinese hall-style timber buildings.