Wind Pressure Analysis on Non-Conventional Steel Structures
Pedro Szloma Herr Zaterka1; Cilmar Donizeti Basaglia1; Maurício Dário1; João Alberto Venegas Requena1
1 UNICAMP
doi:10.20906/CPS/CILAMCE2017-0269
Resumo
As more complex numerical and analytical methods for structural engineering have grown more popular and accessible in the recent years, structures have become lighter and slender, which leads to more optimized structural design but increases the significance of wind and other dynamic loads in the design. The importance of the correct wind load assumption is even more crucial in the case of steel structures, once they are much lighter than the concrete ones, thus more susceptible to pulling forces prevenient from wind action. Usually these external loads are estimated using codes, like Eurocode or the NBR6123/1988, being reliably used in conventional structures, such as gable roofs or rectangular shaped buildings. However, for more complex shapes these codes do not have precise meaning to predict how the fluid-structure interaction will occur. For this case, the most traditional method to determine the wind load acting on a structure is the physical experiment of the wind tunnel. The wind tunnel can provide precise results on the actions acting on the structure, but has the downside of being considerably expensive and time demanding. As well as very susceptible to errors, as even the same structure can present slightly different results depending on the tunnel itself or the scale used. With the advance in the computing power of accessible computers, as well as the development and optimization of software and numerical methods, a counterpart for the wind tunnel experiment is arising, the simulation through computational fluid dynamics (CFD). This tool uses the finite volume method to describe the wind flow through the model, giving information on the wind velocity, pressure and having direct integration with structural finite elements programs, making it possible to transfer geometry and stresses from one to the other. This paper presents an unusual geometry, the Central Bus Station located in the city of Guarulhos, in the State of São Paulo, represented by its steel rooftop and adjacent buildings, comparing the
Palavras-chave: Numerical Simulation; Wind Engineering; Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD); Structural Modelling; Steel Structures