Wind-Induced Response of Tall Mass Timber Buildings Using an Efficient Fluid–Structure Interaction Framework
Abstract
Sustainable mass timber systems are increasingly adopted in tall buildings. However, their lightweight, relatively low lateral stiffness, and inherent damping make them sensitive to wind-induced vibrations. Although fluid-structure interaction (FSI) provides a rigorous framework for wind assessment, its application to tall mass timber structures has been limited in practice by high computational costs and the difficulty of accurately characterising the dynamic properties of timber lateral force-resisting systems. This study proposes an efficient one-way FSI framework with high-fidelity pressure mapping based on Large Eddy Simulation for mass timber structures. Three load mapping strategies with different spatial resolutions, namely façade-resolved, distributed, and lumped-force, are systematically evaluated. The framework is validated against wind engineering benchmarks and applied to a 30-story case-study building. While global responses (e.g., roof displacement and base shear) show close agreement across all methods, significant differences arise at the local level. The proposed distributed mapping approach captures peak Von Mises stresses at critical wall connections up to 18% higher than those predicted by the lumped-force approach, highlighting the importance of preserving the spatial non-synchronicity of wind pressures. In addition, the proposed approach reduces computational time by approximately 79% relative to conventional FSI, while maintaining comparable accuracy to the façade-resolved approach. A parametric study on structural damping shows that the serviceability performance of the case-study tall mass timber building is highly sensitive to damping assumptions. According to ISO 10137, a damping ratio of 3% satisfies the acceleration limit for office occupancy, whereas residential comfort requires a damping ratio exceeding 5%. These findings emphasize the importance of high-resolution pressure mapping and accurate damping characterization for reliable serviceability assessment and connection-level design of tall mass timber buildings.
Reference
Chi Zhang; Yuxin Pan; Jianhui Zhou; Xiaoyue Zhang. (2026). Wind-Induced Response of Tall Mass Timber Buildings Using an Efficient Fluid–Structure Interaction Framework. Elsevier BV. https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.6690051
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