DM to discuss response of tall buildings to wind conditions

The seminar, titled "Wind Engineering in the Gulf" will be held on Thursday, 1 March 2007 at City Hall from 9 a.m. to 12.30 p.m., and is organised in association with Hyder Consulting and CPP (Cermak Peterka Petersen).

Osama Al Safi, Head of Qualification and Building Studies Section at the Buildings Department of the municipality, said the unprecedented growth of a number of key cities in the Gulf, particularly Dubai, has led to a new wave of tall and prestigious building projects. Many of these projects include very tall buildings, often of innovative or unusual form. Internationally accepted codes of practice do not cover the wind engineering design of such unusual projects, except by comprehensive wind tunnel testing of their likely response to the local wind climate.

He said this seminar presents an overview of tall buildings to wind effects, including along wind and across wind excitation of slender buildings, and the way in which mass, stiffness and damping of the structural system can influence the response of a tall tower to the local wind environment. The current wind environment of the Gulf is discussed, including an exploration of some unique seasonal climatic aspects such as Shamal winds. The means and methods of incorporating the unique wind environment of the Gulf into state of the art wind tunnel testing procedures is presented, and the method of incorporating such test results into the design process is described.

The seminar will conclude with a review of the wind engineering conducted on some very tall buildings currently under design and construction in the Gulf. He said prominent international experts Dr. Roy Denoon, Principal in charge of International Projects for CPP, and Dr. Andrew Davids, Director Building Structures at Hyder Consulting, will deliver lectures in the seminar.

Roy started his wind engineering career at the University of Edinburgh before proceeding to graduate studies in Australia. During that time, Roy conducted commercial wind tunnel studies for numerous buildings around the Australasian region including many of the stadiums and arenas used for the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games.

Roy served as a wind engineering consultant to the organizers of the Sydney 2000 Olympics and conducted on-site monitoring of wind conditions, most notably during the opening and closing ceremonies. Following this, Roy re-located to Hong Kong where he was responsible for the wind engineering of such significant structures as the 480 metre-high Union Square tower in Hong Kong, the Rem Koolhaas-designed CCTV headquarters in Beijing, and Herzog de Meuron's Beijing National Stadium for the 2008 Olympics.

Dr. Andrew Davids is the Chief Engineer of Hyder Consulting high-rise design 'studio' which is now based in Dubai and is responsible for many high-rise projects including Emirates Towers. He is currently working on four towers over 100 levels each at various stages of design and/or construction in the Gulf including Burj Dubai and a new tower in Doha.