Large span roof study

The structural design of a large span roof structure, such as the roof of an airport terminal or stadium grand stand is more than often very challenging, firstly because such roofs often have very complex fully 3-dimension shape which give rise to unique wind load distribution that are difficult to estimate; secondly the structure of such roof may consist of networks of interconnected beams which are difficult to analyse and therefore optimise.

Façade cladding pressure study

Cladding system is an important element of modern structures that its design process is often driven by wind action. For tall building with curtain wall system the cladding cost could also contribute to a significant portion of the total construction cost.
Although wind pressures of buildings has been researched and studied thoroughly for many years.  The unique shape of modern buildings / large span roof structure in busy urban surrounding often stretches the applicability of code of practice and sometimes leaves designers with little realistic guidelines.  

Pedestrian wind environment study

Building planners and designers often find it is desirable to ensure a high level of pedestrian wind comfort around new development from the very beginning, not only because excessive wind often impact on the value of a project at a later stage, it is also a regulatory requirement of many city that wind conditions around new buildings need to be satisfactory when compared to certain criteria or not deteriorate from its existing condition at the very least. Some of the green building standard also requires a pleasant wind environment for its certificates.

Wind Loading Study tall building

Structural system of a building is often the biggest contributor for construction cost, and the importance of wind effect of structures is on the increasing trend due to the height and complexity of the structural systems.
Although along wind (drag) loading can be estimated with reasonable degree of accuracy using codified approach, structural design of newer building could be across-wind sensitive or the design could be constrained by peak acceleration at a lower return periods.

Wind tunnel study of scaled model is still the most reliable way to tackle all of these problems. Our boundary layer wind tunnel is the biggest in New Zealand purposely built for these type of studies. Couple with state-of-the-art data acquisition equipment and data analysis techniques will bring the best value to civil construction projects.

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