Citation: Luo, H.; Li, Z. On
Wind-Induced Fatigue of Curtain
Wall Supporting Structure of a
High-Rise Building. Appl. Sci. 2022,
12, 2547. https://doi.org/10.3390/
app12052547
Academic Editors: Alberto
Campagnolo and Alberto Sapora
Received: 18 January 2022
Accepted: 23 February 2022
Published: 28 February 2022
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Article
On Wind-Induced Fatigue of Curtain Wall Supporting Structure
of a High-Rise Building
Haiyin Luo
1,2
and Zhengnong Li
1,2,
*
1
Key Laboratory of Building Safety and Efficiency of the Ministry of Education, Hunan University,
Changsha 410082, China; luohy0671@163.com
2
College of Civil Engineering, Hunan University, Changsha 410082, China
* Correspondence: zhn88@263.net
Abstract:
Due to the soft stiffness of high-rise buildings in the horizontal direction, strong wind will
cause a strenuous structural response. Wind load is one key control load in the design of high-rise
buildings. This study analyzes wind-induced fatigue of curtain wall supporting structure of a high-
rise building in accordance with dynamic pressure measurement data of wind tunnel, acquiring
wind pressure in each part of the structure. The finite element model is established for the curtain
wall supporting structure, and the fatigue of corresponding nodes is discussed. Moreover, RBF
(radial basis function) neural network regression is introduced to predict the fatigue life of unknown
working conditions. Based on the joint distribution model of wind velocity and direction, this study
explores the distribution law of fatigue life of supporting structure nodes, proposes a hypothesis
of life distribution, and conducts a test. Moreover, working conditions with higher probability
life are collected to provide a basis for practical engineering applications. The results show that
the average deviation is below 10% by using RBF neural network and the probability life of the
sample nodes is between 0 and 10
16
. Wind velocity is 8~15 m/s and azimuth angles of 50
◦
~100
◦
,
120
◦
~200
◦
, and 260
◦
~300
◦
are found in working conditions with low probability life; about 95% of
the fatigue damage takes place in the first 30 conditions, and their fatigue damage values are between
3.5 × 10
−3
~9.36 × 10
−2
.
Keywords:
curtain wall supporting structure; wind tunnel test; finite element analysis; regression
analysis; wind-induced fatigue analysis
1. Introduction
The curtain wall is a peripheral maintenance structure of buildings, which is composed
of metal supporting structures (aluminum beam, column, steel structure, etc.) and plates
(glass, aluminum plate, slate, ceramic plate, etc.). When panel material is made of glass, it
is called a glass curtain wall, with functions of bearing and decoration. Compared with
the main structure, maintenance structures such as curtain walls can be easily damaged in
wind disasters. Because of improper design or installation of curtain wall connectors, the
curtain wall will fall off a high-rise building when strong winds come, causing casualties.
At home and abroad, there are limited studies on wind-induced fatigue of curtain wall
supporting structures, so similar research can be consulted. Sivaprakasam et al., [
1
] studied
the structural performance of mullions through the full-scale wind simulation test of
façade assembly. Under headwind, the tilting effect of male and female mullions produces
little influence, and mullion cannot be regarded as a valid interaction for hollow sections.
Liang et al., [
2
] proposeed a bimodal probability distribution model for wind pressure
acting on the windward side of a main building. It includes the Gaussian model and
generalized extreme-value model, to reveal non-Gaussian characteristics of wind pressure
on glass curtain walls. Moreover, Hui et al., [
3
] tested the wind resistance performance
of aluminum alloy columns with different structures in a unit glass curtain wall and
Appl. Sci. 2022, 12, 2547. https://doi.org/10.3390/app12052547 https://www.mdpi.com/journal/applsci
