Computation of wind load forces on tall buildings using visual basic

Abstract

This paper presents computation of wind load forces on tall buildings of regular shape (circular, octagonal and hexagonal, square, rectangular), using Visual Basic. The conventional hand computations of wind loads which are must times rigorous and cumbersome to handle using both NSCP 1 and BS 6399 are presented. A programme called WAND is developed for the analysis using Visual Basic. Application of this programme is made on a 10-storey building and its drifts were computed. LIRA - a universal structural designing software based on finite element method (FEM) is used to compute deflections from the given codes. Results obtained are compared. Drift of a 10-storey building is found to be 7.3mm (NSCP 1) and 50mm (BS 6399) using LIRA respectively. While this makes computation faster and accurate it does enable comparison to be made for the efficiencies of the codes, thus making the programme adequate for computation of wind load forces on building and enhancing revision on codes of practice in developing countries to be made.