Identification of Wind Loads and Estimation of Structural Responses of Super-Tall Buildings by an Inverse Method

This article presents a Kalman-filter-based estimation algorithm for identification of wind loads on a super-tall building using limited structural responses. In practice, acceleration responses are most convenient to be measured among wind-induced dynamic responses of structures. The proposed inverse method allows estimating the unknown wind loads and structural responses of a super-tall building using limited acceleration measurements. Taipei 101 Tower is a super-tall building with 101 stories and a height of 508 m. Field measurements and numerical simulations of the wind effects on Taipei 101 Tower are conducted. The wind loads acting on the super-tall building are estimated based on the wind-induced responses determined from the numerical simulations and the refined finite-element model of the structure, which are in good agreement with the exact results. The stability performance of the proposed algorithm is evaluated. The influence of noise levels in the measurements and covariance matrix of noise on the identification accuracy are investigated and discussed based on the L-curve method. Finally, the wind loads and structural responses are reconstructed based on the field-measured accelerations during Typhoon Matsa. The accuracy of the identified results is verified by comparing the reconstructed acceleration responses with the field measurements. The results of this study show that the proposed inverse approach can provide accurate predictions of the wind loads and wind-induced responses of super-tall buildings based on limited measured responses.