Assessing the Resilience of Tall Building Structures to Increased Wind Loading using Sensitivity Analysis

Over the past decade windstorms have increased in intensity and severity, becoming one of the most damaging natural hazards facing Europe. These extreme weather events can result in significant human and economic losses, including service disruptions, substantial damage to infrastructure, the natural environment, private property, and human injuries and fatalities. Current design standards for the built environment often rely on historical climate data, leading to a vulnerability gap for both existing and new infrastructure. Therefore, the increasing non-stationarity of the climate necessitates a probabilistic assessment of structural performance under evolving environmental loads. For tall buildings, a primary serviceability limit state is occupant discomfort due to wind-induced accelerations. An increase in extreme wind loads can amplify floor accelerations leading to occupants experiencing dizziness, difficulty concentrating and motion sickness. This research aims to assess the resilience of existing high-rise buildings to increased wind loading, with a particular focus on ensuring occupant comfort. This is achieved through development of a sensitivity-based framework to quantify the key parameters influencing tall buildings exceeding habitability acceleration criteria under extreme wind loads. A reduced order model of a tall building structure is used to efficiently conduct a sensitivity analysis, isolating the influence of key parameters on the dynamic response. From this analysis, a critical response surface is identified, which relates wind load and building properties to serviceability limit state failure. The methodology presented provides an initial framework for performance-based wind engineering, enabling the assessment of existing buildings and proactive climate adaptation to en-sure resilience.