In response to a growing demand for performance-based wind design guidance, ASCE’s Structural Engineering Institute has issued a prestandard that supplements ASCE 7’s prescriptive methods.
The “ASCE/SEI Prestandard for Performance-Based Wind Design” includes nonlinear dynamic analysis for wind design, system-based performance criteria and enhanced design criteria for the building envelope. It also aims to smooth out conflicts when applying performance-based approaches to seismic design.
“This research will advance the use of performance-based design procedures for the design of tall buildings and enhance their performance during wind events,” said Don Scott, P.E., F.SEI, F.ASCE, the prime investigator who led the prestandard development team and vice president and director of engineering for PCS Structural Solutions.
“These procedures will allow for innovation by the design profession to use unique or unusual structural systems, incorporate novel materials and design approaches for tall buildings to better protect the health, safety and welfare of the public.”
As laid out in the prestandard, the benefits of performance-based wind design include:
• Rational evaluation of wind demands and building responses to avoid undesirable outcomes and/or predict expected wind damage and losses.
• Evaluation of the expected response of a structure to wind demands and, where appropriate, permitting deformation-controlled response of appropriately engineered building elements.
• Application of enhanced detailing, relative to prescriptive code-based requirements, of the Main Wind-Force Resisting System and/or the building envelope system to rationally reduce damage and losses for design wind effects.
• Increased structural economy through enhanced analysis and design techniques.
• Enhanced ability to use alternate detailing, energy dissipation or construction techniques through demonstration of building performance.
SEI received a research grant to develop and publish the prestandard from the Charles Pankow Foundation for $150,000, with co-funding support from the ACI Foundation, American Institute of Steel Construction, ASCE Industry Leaders Council and the MKA Foundation.
