The response and comfort of tall building occupants subjected to wind-induced motion tends to govern the design of modern tall buildings. Occupant comfort is dependent upon many factors, not only the characteristics of the motion itself but largely upon individual's sensitivity to motion and various personality characteristics. As there is a lack of broadly accepted occupant comfort criteria, it is often useful to understand the effect of strong wind storms on occupant comfort by simulating the motion.

WWTF has a tall building motion simulator to accurately reproduce the motions that are experienced by tall buildings ranging from 50m to 500m during severe wind storms such as typhoons. The simulator is currently being used in an extensive research programme of people’s responses to motion to formulate international guidelines for tall building design. Coupled with WWTF’s Wind Tunnel facilities, the simulator has also been used to demonstrate to clients the motions that their new buildings will experience, potentially saving millions of dollars on dampers and increasing valuable floor space.

Current Research Projects

• Human Responses to low frequency conflicting physical and visual linear motion
  – Hong Kong Research Grants Council

• Occupant comfort, cognitive performance and task performance in wind-excited tall buildings
  – Australian Research Council Discovery Project

• Research Position Available