Innovative approaches for efficient and resilient tall buildings

Overview

With rapid urbanisation, delivering safe, resilient and resource-efficient tall buildings is increasingly central to sustainable urban infrastructure. As tall-building construction continues to expand globally, design is often governed not by strength but by dynamic performance, and in particular by ensuring wind-induced accelerations remain within user comfort limits requirements.

After a brief framing of the principles of tall-building design, wind response and the main damping technologies, this lecture will introduce a novel large-mass damping system that mobilises the building’s own mass as the damper mass.

The approach, developed through a collaboration between Arup and Imperial College London, overcomes most limitations of conventional damping systems, resulting in a more resilient and efficient design under both service and strength excitations.

The initial numerical simulations assessing the response will be presented, followed by the methodology and results of the aeroelastic wind tunnel testing campaign, which include explicit modelling of the response control mechanism. 

The intricate design and fabrication process, and the framework developed to enable it, will be presented alongside the calibration and test methodology.

The results will be finally discussed in terms of global response reduction, changes in dynamic behaviour, and an emphasis on how the findings translate into practical design decisions and integration strategies for efficient and resilient tall building design.