ICE-Wind engineering the unconventional: challenges and lessons learnt

The event will include two talks:

• Past and present unconventional structures: two wind tunnel studies - Claudio Mannini, University of Florence, Italy and representing ANIV.
• Small structures, bespoke and novel designs – the structural designer perspective versus the wind engineer perspective - Anna Bagnara, NOVA Fluid Mechanics, UK and representing WES.

Claudio’s talk will highlight unconventional wind engineering features for two very different iconic structures, namely the gothic Cathedral of Notre Dame de Paris (France) and the New “Torre Piloti” in the Port of Genoa (Italy). In the first case, the building geometry and the strong interaction with the surrounding urban environment make inaccurate the standard pressure coefficient envelopes that may be adapted from Codes and Standards. In the second case, slenderness, lightness, and wind-challenging geometry ask for advanced dynamic analyses under the wind action. For both case studies, wind tunnel tests were crucial to understand the aerodynamic behavior of the structures and to quantify the wind loads.

Anna’s talk will provide several examples of structures that failed in wind. A mixture of small and large structures, all of which characterized by relatively unconventional and novel designs, will be shown. The talk will aim to answer a few questions:

• Do structural designers have the necessary tool to safely design these structures?
• Are codes of practice a suitable starting point?
• How can structural engineers recognize wind-sensitive structures?
• How can they decide when to involve a wind expert?

A few case studies will be shown and discussed and a strategy for improvement will be proposed.