ASCE 7-22 and ASCE 49-21 Wind Tunnel Testing for Structural Design: From Code Limits to Performance-Based Decisions
Credits: 5 PDH
PDH Course Description:
For tall, slender, irregular, and aerodynamically sensitive structures, code-based wind procedures may provide only part of the information needed for reliable design. Localized façade pressures, cross-wind excitation, torsional response, dynamic amplification, occupant acceleration, and interference from surrounding buildings can govern critical engineering decisions even when conventional code checks appear satisfactory. Wind tunnel testing provides the site-specific aerodynamic data needed to identify these effects—but the value of that data depends on how well the engineer scopes the study, evaluates its quality, interprets the results, and integrates them into the structural design.
This course provides a practice-focused framework for using wind tunnel testing in conjunction with ASCE/SEI 7-22 and ASCE/SEI 49-21. Participants examine when prescriptive wind procedures remain appropriate and when project geometry, flexibility, exposure, or serviceability requirements justify more advanced investigation, covering atmospheric boundary-layer simulation, model scaling and similitude, rigid and aeroelastic model selection, and data-quality review. These fundamentals are connected directly to structural actions—base shear, overturning, torsion, member-level demand, and foundation response—as well as to wind-induced serviceability and occupant comfort using acceleration-based criteria from ISO 10137, ISO 2631-1, and CTBUH, and to wind-sensitive applications such as tall towers, long-span roofs, stadiums, and bridges. Wind tunnel outputs are carried into structural-analysis workflows using platforms such as ETABS, SAP2000, and Robot Structural Analysis, with attention to load mapping, directionality, and the risks of incorrectly combining peak responses.
The course also examines how CFD, hybrid CFD–wind tunnel workflows, reduced-order and AI-assisted models, and digital twins can support—not replace—sound engineering judgment, and addresses the often-overlooked practice of defining a wind study's engineering objective, selecting a testing strategy, and planning schedules, budgets, and quality-control requirements before testing begins. By completing this course, participants will be better prepared to determine when wind tunnel testing is warranted, critically review such studies, convert measured aerodynamic data into defensible design actions, and integrate directional wind loads and serviceability performance into analytical models when code procedures alone do not fully represent structural response.Topics:
By the end of this course, participants will be able to:
- Identify when ASCE 7-22 prescriptive wind procedures are appropriate and when building geometry, flexibility, exposure, or performance requirements warrant wind tunnel testing, applying key ASCE 49-21 concepts to review boundary-layer simulation, scaling, model selection, and data-quality documentation.
- Select appropriate rigid, force-balance, sectional, or aeroelastic testing approaches based on the structural response and design information required.
- Interpret measured pressure coefficients, global forces, directional envelopes, and response histories and translate them into actionable structural and enclosure design demands.
- Evaluate along-wind, cross-wind, torsional, vortex-induced, resonant, and aeroelastic response in tall, slender, flexible, and irregular structures, including special structures such as towers, long-span roofs, stadiums, and bridges.
- Review wind-induced serviceability and occupant-comfort performance using RMS, peak acceleration, VDV, frequency effects, and applicable ISO and CTBUH guidance.
- Calculate and evaluate localized façade, cladding, and roof pressures and relate wind tunnel results to glazing, fasteners, anchors, and other enclosure components.
- Integrate directionally consistent wind tunnel loads into structural-analysis platforms while preserving spatial variation, correlation, load paths, and torsional effects, and verify their translation into lateral-system, member-level, foundation, and performance-based design decisions.
- Compare physical wind tunnel testing with CFD, hybrid workflows, reduced-order modeling, monitoring, and digital-twin approaches and select their appropriate roles within the design process.
- Identify common interpretation, coordination, and data-integration errors that can produce unnecessary conservatism, missed local demands, serviceability problems, or costly redesign.
- Plan wind-engineering studies by defining the engineering objective, scope, schedule, testing strategy, deliverables, quality-control requirements, and project-specific cost considerations.
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Intended Audience: This course is intended for structural engineers, façade and building-envelope engineers, and senior reviewers involved in the design, review, or coordination of wind-sensitive buildings, towers, long-span roofs, stadiums, and bridges who integrate wind tunnel data, localized pressures, and performance-based analysis into structural and enclosure design decisions.
Publication Source: Cadistics Courseware