A new method for obtaining wind loads by robustly combining part-model test results

The authors propose a new method to synthesise the time series of wind loads up the height of a building by robustly combining part-model test results and show that they are essentially identical to those sampled simultaneously from a complete model. A pressure-tapped circular cylinder was built to study and validate this segmented model test method using high frequency pressure integration. The detailed mathematical derivation of the synthetic wind load (SWL) method is presented. The dynamic response of a hypothetical chimney using uncorrected wind loads from two independent wind tunnel tests of the circular cylinder model is found to be underestimated considerably compared to using wind loads from simultaneously sampled pressure taps. However, the dynamic response of the chimney using the SWL method to robustly combine the wind loads from two independent wind tunnel tests is almost identical to the dynamic response of the chimney using pressure tap data sampled simultaneously over the whole model. The establishment of this method is of great importance for the wind tunnel investigation of very high aspect ratio buildings where a model of the entire building cannot be tested within typical wind tunnel test sections because the Reynolds number would be too low, or the model section would be too narrow to contain the pressure tubes, and part-models need to be tested. •Mathematical derivation of a new method for robustly combining wind loads from multiple model tests.•Validated synthetic wind load method accurately predicts displacement responses (